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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

< 'iiai).?:iii3L.lfl Copyright No. 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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THE STORY ^-DOMINION 

Four Hundred Years in the Annals of 
Half a Continent 



A History of Canada hhm its Early Discovery 
and Settlement to the Present Time; Embracing 
its Growth, Proflress and Achievements in the 



Pursuits of Peace and War. 



y 



By .1. LAvSTELL HOPKLXS, F.S.S. 

Author of " Life uf Sir .lohn Thompson:" Editor of "Canada:" An Ettcyclopucdiu of the Country, 

Etc., Etc., Etc. 



Unbellished with 64 fnll-pacje half-tone en(iravin(|s. and portraits 
of more than 100 eminent men— the makers of Canada. 



THE JOHN C. WINSTON CO. 

PHIIADELPHIA CHICAGO TORONTO 



LJbpary of Con^r**) 

Iwu Copies Rkceivco 
FEB 21 1901 

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r.iiirrrd iiccorcling to Act of Congress in the year 1901, by 
in the otfire of the I.ihrnrian of Congress, at Washington. 



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PREFACE. 

SOME years ago I had occasion to state that "Canada only needs 
to be known in order to be great." Events have since greatly 
strengthened my belief in the truth of these words and have impressed 
upon my mind the further fact that to be properly appreciated abroad 
a people should be familiar with its own past, proud of its own history, 
filled with confidence in its own resources and strength and conscious 
of its own national and material development. 

Are Canadians in this position ? It is to be feared that only a 
small minority realize the conditions mentioned. The great mass of 
the people look with admiration and deserved respect upon the 
splendid annals of the Mother-land, her wars upon sea and shore, her 
heroes in history and statecraft and literature and every branch of 
human progress, her wealth of civilized tradition and store of consti- 
tutional liberties. Others are impressed with the vast object-lesson 
of United States development and the thrilling records of its war for 
unity and freedom. To them all, it is to be feared, the four hundred 
years of history which the Dominion boasts is more or less a sweep- 
ing shadow upon the dial of time ; a matter of comparative unimport- 
ance and little interest. 

Yet that period includes within itself the most picturesque pano- 
rama of events in all the annals of the world. There lies within its 
shadow the fig^ure of the wild, untamed savaee movinof over his native 
ground in a spirit of mingled ferocity and love of freedom ; the black- 
robed Jesuit struggling against fate and the fierce will of the Iroquois in 
a spirit of sacrificial fire almost unequalled in the annals of martyrdom ; 
the long procession of French gentlemen and adventurers, voyageurs 



ii PREFACE 

and hunters, streaming up the waterways of the St. Lawrence and 
scattering over the vast wilderness of half a continent in pursuit of 
dreams of wealth, or power, or fame ; the romantic story of such lives 
as Iberville le Moyne and Charles de la Tour, such struggles as those 
of Champlain and the Iroquois, Frontenac and the Americans, Wolfe 
and Montcalm. 

Through the shaded aisles of a primeval forest, over thousands 
of miles of lake and river and wilderness echo the sounds of that hun- 
dred years of war between the French and English for the possession 
of this continent. Out of these struggles develop the striking inci- 
dents of the Revolutionary period and the first conflict for Canadian 
independence; out of the new condition of affairs then created come 
the memories of a war in 1812 which was fought for freedom as fully, 
and marked by episodes as heroic, as ever were the conflicts of ancient 
Greek or modern Swiss. 

To the constitutional student there are no more interesting pages 
in history than those describing the developments of the nineteenth 
century in British America and none which convey more lessons in 
the follies of a fanatical freedom, the strength of an hereditarj' loyalty, 
the value of a moderate liberty evolving through precedent into prac- 
tice. The questions connected with the history of Canada are, indeed, 
at the very root of the annals and present position of the British 
Empire. He who would understand the situation of to-day must 
know something, for instance, of the prolonged struggle between 
British and American tendencies and influence which permeates the 
whole modern development of the Canadian people from the annexa- 
tionist views of Papineau and Mackenzie to the continental aims of 
Mr. Erastus Wiman or Mr. Goldwin Smith ; from the religious and 
denominational ties of early days between the two countries to the 
social and commercial relations of a later time ; from the early period 
of American preachers and missionaries and teachers and schoolbooks 



PREFACE iii 

to the present time of an American cable system, and news agencies 
and literature. He who understands the existing loyalty of Canada to 
the Empire will then realize in the full light of its history that, despite 
the ties of tradition and allegiance and sentiment, the maintenance and 
development of that loyalty is one of the miracles of the century. 

To the young men of Canada a knowledge of its history and 
progress is not only desirable but necessary. To understand the 
business situation of to-day information concerning the financial, fiscal 
and commercial development of the Dominion is exceedingly useful. 
To comprehend the position of political parties, the utterances of 
public men, the principle and practice of national administration, a 
knowledge of the political struggles and progress of the country is 
also essential. In all these respects I believe that the following pages 
may be found of some service. 

I have not tried to make this volume a detailed record of dates 
and incidents. It has rather been my desire to give an interesting 
narrative of the great events which go to the making of Canada 
in such a way as to afTord a summarized review instead of a more or 
less dry list of occurrences. At the same time I trust that no event 
of importance has been left unrecorded. For a similar reason I have 
not laden the pages with foot-notes or references to the many hun- 
dreds of volumes with which occasion has made me familiar in the 
preparation of this work and of my Encyclopcedia of Canada. And, 
in concluding these few prefatory words, I can only add the hope that 
a book which has been written with sincere belief in our Canadian 
land and a deep personal admiration for its striking history may be 
found of interest and perhaps sow some further seeds of true Cana- 
dian sentiment amongst our people. 



](CJ}My1^vliZL^ 



Toronto, December, igoo. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I 

Discoveries and Explorations 

PACK 

A Period of Myth and Mystery — The Sagas of Iceland and the Voyages of 

the Norsemen — Cabot's Place in History — Comparison with Columbus 
— Champlain and Cartier — Founding of Quebec — Discover^' of tl;e Great 
Lakes — La Salle and the Interior — The French and the English — Grad- 
ual Unrolling of the New World's Map 17 

CHAPTER II 

The Indians of Early Canada 

Their Place in Tradition and Story — Their Character and Customs — A 
History Written in Fire and Blood over the Whole Continent — Two 
Sides to the Record — The Indian of the Past and the Present — Roman- 
tic Pictures and Black Shadows — The Iroquois and the French — Heroism 
of Daulac — The Lachine Massacre — The English Colonists and the Indi- 
ans — The British Government's Treatment of the Indian — The Iroquois 
of New York and the Revolution — Thayendanagea and Tecumseh — 
Darkness Dawning into Light 43 

CHAPTER III 

The Jesuit Missions and Pioneer Christianity 

The Pioneers of Empire in New France — The Jesuits and Their Work — 
Extraordinary Character of these Black-robed Martyrs to their Faith — 
Success with the Hurons — Failure Amongst the Iroquois — A Long Story 
of Privation, Self sacrifice, Adventure, Torture and Frequent Death — 
Lallemant and Brebeuf— The Early Church in Quebec — Laval and 
Briand and Plessis — Difficulties and Disputes, Power and Progress — Loy- 
alty to Great Britain and W^isdom in Administration 66 

CHAPTER IV 

The Land of Evangeline 

Founding of Acadie — Champlain and Du Monts and Poutrincourt — Suffer- 
ings and Hardships of the Early Settlers — Sir William Alexander and 
the English Claims — Internal and External Hostilities — The Storj- of 



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TABLE OF CONTENTS v 

TAGC 

De la Tour and Charuisay — Rival Colonists and Races and Varying 
Warfare — Treaties and Transfers of Allegiance. — Sir William Phipps at 
Port Royal — Final British Conquest — Continuous Border Troubles with 
Quebec — Conduct and Character of the Acadians — Hiawatha at the Bar 
of History — The Expulsion of the Acadians — Governor Lawrence and 
his Reasons — The End of Acadie and the Birth of a New Era .... 83 

CHAPTER V 

The French and English Wars 

Rivalry and Warfare of a Century — Prolonged Conflict for the Possession of 
a Continent — French Aims and Character — English Progress and Expan- 
sion — Feudalism versus Freedom ; Military Ambition versus Commer- 
cial Development — Gallantry of the French in their Defiance of Fate — 
Greatness of their Plans and the One-time Possibility of Success — Fron- 
tenac and Talon — War and Massacre and Battle — The Hatchet and 
Scalping Knife of the Indians, and the Roar of European Guns in the 
vast Forest Areas of America — De Tracy and De Courcelles — Denon- 
ville of Quebec, and Dongan of New York — Sieges of Quebec — Brilliant 
Career of D ' Iberville — Sieges of Louisbourg — Montcalm and Wolfe — 
Capture of Quebec and the Last Days of New-France 105 

CHAPTER VI 

Colonial Rivalry and the Revolution 

Antagonism of the French in Quebec and the English in the Thirteen Colo- 
nies — Influences of Race and Religion and Historic Rivalries — The 
Quebec Act and the English Colonies — Guy Carleton, Lord Dorchester 
— Gradual Evolution of American Discontent — Quebec Remains Pas- 
sively Loyal to the Crown — Efforts to Divert its Allegiance — Washing- 
ton and D' Estaing Appeal to French Canadians — Franklin in Montreal 
— Declaration of American Independence and Invasion of Canada — 
Carleton Saves the Country to England — Progress of the Revolution — 
Treaty of Peace and Canadian Losses of Territory — Old Quebec Dis- 
membered and the Ohio Valley Given to the New Republic — Diverse 
Development North and South of the Great Lakes 129 

CHAPTER VII 

The Loyalist Pioneers 

Genesis of the American Tories, or Canadian Loyalists of a Later Time — 
Principles, Traditions, and General Position — Loj^alty to the King — 
Lights and Shadows in the Life and Character of George III — Suffer- 



vi TABLE OF CONTENTS 

ings of the Loyalist Refugees to tlie Canadas and New Brunswick — 
Hardships of Pioneer Life — Stories in the Making of a Nation and 
Country — New Institutions built on Old time Traditions — Loyaltj- to 
the Sovereign as the Basis of Life and Work in a vast Wilderness . . . 148 

CHAPTER VIII 

Early Constitutional Development 

French Canadians not Ready at the Cession, nor for many years afterwards, 
to Receive the Full Forms of British Freedom — The Military Rigime, 
the Quebec Act, and the Constitutional Act — The Expansion of Quebec in 
1775 and its Restriction and Division in 1791 — British Government 
makes the Mistake of Beginning at the Top instead of at the Bottom of 
the Framework of Free Institutions— Frenchmen Bom and Bred in the 
Traditions of Louis XIV, Frontenac and Bigot — Playing at Parlia- 
mentary Government — The Situation Different in the Loyalist Provinces. 166 . 

CHAPTER IX 

The War 1812-1,- 

Causes and Issues of the Conflict — Disproportion of Forces, and American 
Expectation of an Immediate Conquest of Canada — The Difficulties of 
England — Napoleon Bonaparte and the United States — War Declared 
by the Republic — The Gauntlet Taken up and Flung back by Brock at 
the Capture of Detroit and the Conflict on Queeuston Heights. Inva- 
sions Repulsed, and the Varying Results of Minor Actions in three 
Important Campaigns — Gallantry of Tecumseh and the Indians — Weak- 
ness of Prevost and Defeat of Procter at Moraviantown — American \'ic- 
tories on the Lakes — British or Canadian Victories at Chateauguay, 
Lacolle Mills, Stony Creek, Chr\-stler's Farm, and Lundy's Lane — 
Landing of Peninsular Veterans at Quebec — Disaster at Plattsburg ; Cap- 
ture of Washington ; Defeat at New Orleans and End of the War — The 
Treaty of Peace — Canadian Heroes and Homes in the Struggle — Brock, 
Tecumseh, De Salaberry, Fitzgibbou, Har\-ey, Morrison, McDonell and 
Drummond 183 

CHAPTER X 

An Era of Agitation 

Development of Discontent in Lower Canada — Moderate Frenchmen in 
a very Small Minority — English and French Antagonisms — The French 
^Majority Seizes its Opportunity — The Assembly becomes a Convenient 
Tool for Racial Control of the Province — Papineau as an Orator, an 



TABLE OF CONTENTS ^'i 

PAGIZ 

Agitator, and a Budding Rebel — Neilson, Morin, Viger, Sewell, and 
other Lower Canada Leaders — ^The Governors and Their Difficulties — 
Grievances, Real and Fancied^The Ninety-two Resolutions — Attitude 
and Policy of the Tories — In Upper Canada and Down by the Atlantic — 
Clerg)'^ Reserves and other Issues — Benefits of the Loyalist Regime — 
Mackenzie Appears on the Scene in Succession to Thorpe, Gourlay, and 
other Agitators — His Struggles and Aspirations and Policy — Alliance 
with Papineau -English Radicals and Canadian Reformers — Agitation 
steadily Develops Disloyalty and Rebellion in the two Canadas — Different 
Results of Controversy on the Atlantic Sea-board 208 

CHAPTER XI ■ 

The Troubles of 1837-8 

Progress of Sedition in the Canadas — Attitude of the Governors — Colborne 
and Bond Head — Extreme Views and Violence of Papineau and Macken- 
zie — Comparative Moderation of Howe and Baldwin. The Tory Posi- 
tion on the Verge of the Outbreak — Conflicts in Lower Canada — The 
Short and Sharp Struggle in Upper Canada— -Punishment of the Rebels — 
Border Troubles and Relations with the United States — Raids and other 
Results — Lord Durham's ^ndL Regivie — The Rebellion in History and 
Politics 237 

CHAPTER XII 

Lord Durham and the Union of 1841 

Remarkable Character of the Earl of Durham — His Policy and Short Admin- 
istration — His Famous Report the Basis of Colonial Constitutions every- 
where — Recommends the Union of the Canadas — Obstacles to the Pro- 
ject — Condition of the People and Politics — Racial Complications — 
Carried in Upper Canada through the Tory Spirit of Loyalty — Influence 
and Policy of Lord Sydenham — The Principles and Bases of Union — Its 
Creation and First Fruits 254 

CHAPTER XIII 

The Hudson's Bay Company and the Northwest 

Foundation and Early Annals of the Company — The Great Wilderness of the 
Far West— The Red River Settlement— Lord Selkirk and His Times— 
The Indians and the Half-breeds — Explorations and Discoveries — The 
Rival Fur-Companies — Expansion of the Hudson's Bay Company — 
Early History of British Columbia — The Company and Colonization — 
Vancouver Island and the Mainland — Prince Rupert's Land and Negotia- 
tions with Canada — The Passing Power of a Great Company 267 



V111 TABLE OF CONTENTS 

CHAPTER XIV 

The Struggles for Responsible Government 

rAO 

Conditions Prevalent after the Union of the Canadas — What the Advocates 
of Responsible Government Wanted — Reason for Opposition — The Gov- 
ernors and the Colonial Office — Bagot, Metcalfe, and Elgin — The Politi- 
cal Leaders and the Issue — Draper and McNab, Baldwin and Lafon- 
taine — Lord Elgin Settles the Question — In the Maritime Provinces — 
Howe and the Governors of Nova Scotia — Varied Phases of the Issue — 
Fisher and Wilmot in New Brunswick — Satisfactory Solution of an 
Important Controversy 284 

CHAPTER XV 

Political Reforms and General Progress 

The Troubles of 1849 — The Rebellion Losses Bill — Riots and Elections — 
British Free Trade and One of its Results — A Perambulating Parliament 
— The British American Leagvie and the Early Days of Sir John Mac- 
donald — George Brown comes to the Front — Abolition of the Seigneurial 
Tenure — Settlement of the Clergj' Resen'es — Political Complications and 
Parties in the Canadas — On the Verge of Deadlock — Position of Affairs 
in the Maritime Provinces — Rise of Charles Tupper and Leonard Tilley 
into Prominence — The Grand Trunk and the Intercolonial — Gradual 
Growth of the Provinces 305 

CHAPTER XVI 

Reciprocity and the United States Civil War 

The Early Fiscal Policy of the Provinces — Abolition of British Preferential 
Duties — The Public Mind Turns to the States — Lord Elgin's Ability 
and Diplomac)- — Visits Washington and Obtains the Treaty of 1854 — 
Its Nature and Benefits — Its Tenure and Disadvantages — Different Inter- 
pretations — The Gait Tariff in the Canadas — Complaints by the United 
States — The Civil War and the Supposed Attitude of England. Her 
Real Position and that of the Provinces — The Alabama Claims and 
Fenian Raids Result from the War — The General Nature of the Interna- 
tional Situation — Its Effect upon British America 327 

CHAPTER XVII 

The Confederation of the Provinces 

Origin of Confederation — Early Advocates of the Idea — Causes which 
Brought it to the Front in i S64-66 — The Conferences at Charlottetown and 



TABLE OF CONTENTS ix 

PAGI 

Quebec — Who was the Father of Confederation ? — Meeting in London — 
British Statesmen Support the Policy of Union — Its Necessity and 
Desirability — A Crisis in British Colonial Historj' — The Influence of 
John A. Macdouald — Debates in the Canadian Legislature — Attitude of 
Cartier and Dorion in Lower Canada — Of Howe, and Tupper and Tilley 
in the Maritime Provinces — Of McGee, and Gait and George Brown in 
the Canadas — Accomplishment of the Policy and Birth of the Dominion 
of Canada 342 

CHAPTER XVIII 

The Completing Confederation 

The Situation of Affairs on July i, 1867 — Sir John Macdonald Forms the 
first Dominion Government — A Nominal Coalition — Organization of a 
new Administrative System — Purchase of Rupert's Land and Creation 
of Manitoba — The Insurrection at Fort Garry — Wolseley and Riel — The 
Admission of Manitoba to the Union — Organization of the Territories — 
Admission of British Columbia — Prince Edward Island also Comes in — 
The Federal Situation in Nova Scotia and its Solution 360 

CHAPTER XIX 

The Treaty of Washington 

Relations with the United States after the Abrogation of the Reciprocity 
Treat)^ — The Joint High Commission of 1871 — Its Composition and 
Objects — Sir John Macdonald's DiflScult Position — -The Fenian Raid 
Claims and Canadian Fisheries — Conclusion of the Treaty — Opinion in 
Canada and its Ultimate Passage through Parliament — Important Issues 
Involved — The Patriotic Attitude of Canada — Relations of Great Britain 
and the United States 380 

CHAPTER XX 

Political Questions and Development 

The Party System in the New Dominion — Changes and Transformations — 
Policy of Sir John A. Macdonald — Disappearance of Old Issues — The 
Provinces in New Clothes — -Their Ministers and Parties — Complications 
Between the Dominion and Provincial Authorities — Improvement in 
Parliament and Politics — Broader Views and Bigger Minds — Position 
and Character of the Governors-General — The Joly Question in Quebec 
— The General Elections of 1872 and 1874 394 



X TABLE OF CONTENTS 

CHAPTER XXI 

The National Policy of Protection 

rAC« 

Fiscal Relations of the New Dominion with the United States — Change in 
Conditions — The Tariff Remains at a Revenue Level — Industrial Com- 
petition and Growing Depression in Canada — A Protective Tarifif Advo- 
cated — Sir John Macdonald Takes Up the Question — Resolutions in the 
House of Commons — Opposed by the Government — General Election of 
1878 — Victory of the Conser\'atives — ^The Macdonald Ministry and its 
Policy — The "N.P." Tariff passes Parliament in 1879 — Principles of 
Protection in Canada — Its Ups and Downs and Final Acceptance by all 
Parties 4'^ 

CHAPTER XXII 

Construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway 

The Principle of a Continental Highway and its Early Advocates — The Pledge 
to British Columbia — The Promoters of 1872 and their Troubles — Mr. 
Mackenzie and the Policy of His Government — The Syndicate of 1880 — 
Sir Charles Tupper takes Up the Question — The Macdonald Govern- 
ment Presses the Final Contract through Parliament — Building of the 
Great Railway' — Difficulties and Obstacles — George Stephen and Donald 
A. Smith — Triumph of the Company and Completion of the Railway — 
A Great Undertaking and its Importance to Canada 430 

CHAPTER XXIII 

The Northwest and the Rebellion of 1885 

The People and Position of the Territories — Causes of the Insurrection — 
Appearance of Louis Riel on the Scene — The Indians and the Half-breeds 
— Policy of the Government — Breaking out of the Rebellion — Troops 
Hurried from all Parts of Canada to the Banks of the Saskatchewan — 
General Middleton as a Commander — Success of his Tactics and Ulti- 
mate Triumph of his Political Adversaries — Conflicts at Fish Creek, 
Cut-Knife and Batoche — Capture and Execution of Riel — Results of the 
Rising 449 

CHAPTER XXIV 

Quebec and the Jesuits Estates Question 

Political Issues in Quebec and the Position of the Church — The Habitant 
and the Clergy — Twenty Years of Conservative Success — The Rise and 
Diverse Characteristics of Mercier and Laurier — The Riel Question and 
the People of Quebec — Position of Chapleau, Langevin and Caron — 



TABLE OF CONTENTS xi 

PAGB 

Trimnph of Mercier in Provincial Politics aud of Chapleau in the 
Dominion Elections — Genesis of the Jesuits Estates — Appeal to the Pope 
— Passage of the Grant to the Jesuits — Agitation in Ontario and Birth of 
the Equal Rights part)' — Refusal of the Dominion Government to inter- 
fere with the Legislation — D' Alton McCarthy and the " Noble Thir- 
teen " — A Very Diving Question for a Time — Its Decay and the Fall of 
Mercier in Quebec 47 1 

CHAPTER XXV 

Trade and Tariffs and Unrestricted Reciprocity 

The Progress of Canadian Trade — Popularity of Protection — Changes in 
Liberal Tariif Policy — Mackenzie, Blake and Daurier in this Connection 
— Natural Pessimism of the Opposition — Erastus Wiman Appears on 
the Scene in 1887 — Sir Richard Cartwright, Goldwin Smith and the 
New Scheme of Commercial Union, or Unrestricted Reciprocity — Pro- 
gress of the Movement in Parliament and the Country — American Ver- 
sus British Relations at Issue — The Elections of 1891 — Manifestoes of 
Sir John Macdonald and Wilfrid Laurier — The Hottest Contest in 
Canadian Historj' — The New Proposals Defeated — Gradual Decay of 
the Idea and its Final Disappearance in the Elections of 1896 491 

CHAPTER XXVI 

Manitoba and the School Question 

Progress of Manitoba After its Union with Canada — Material Interests the 
Chief Concern of its Scattered People — Education Finds an Important 
Place — Separate Schools and the Roman Catholic Population — Position 
of Archbishop Tache — Legislation and the Schools — ^Joseph Martin 
Advocates "National" Schools — Abolition in 1890 of the Existing 
S3^stem — Catholic Appeals to the Courts and to the Judicial Committee 
in London — Decisions of the Latter Body and Appeal to the Governor- 
General-in-Council — Excitement amongst French Canadians and Ontario 
Orangemen — Difficult Position of the Dominion Government — The Reme- 
dial Order— Attitude of Sir M. Bowell and Sir C. Tupper— Of Mr. Lau- 
rier and the Opposition — Position of the Hierarchy — Political Conflict 
and Confusion — The Elections of 1896 and the Policy of the New Gov- 
ernment 518 

CHAPTER XXVII 

The South African War and Imperialism in Canada 

Position of Canada in the Empire — Responsibilities not Always Recognized — 
The Outbreak of the War — Popular Opinion in the Colonies — Influence 



x'l TABLE OF CONTENTS 

PACK 

of the Imperial Federation League — Precedents for Sending the Contin- 
gents — History of their Despatch — Patriotic Enthusiasm of the People — 
Position of Lord Miiito, Sir \V. Laurier and Sir C. Tupper — Major-Gene- 
ral Hutton and the Militia — The Colonial OflSce and Canada — Gallantry 
of Canadian Troops in South Africa — Growth of British Sentiment in 
Canada — Attitude of Quebec and Mr. J. Israel Tarte — Possible Results 
of the War and of Colonial Participation — A New Empire and a Greater 
Canada 5^t 

CHAPTER XXVIII 

A Review of Popular Progress 

Growth of Internal Liberty and the Practice of Self-government — The Old- 
Time Legislatures and the New — French-Canadians and British Institu- 
tions — The Toryism of 1800 and the Democracj' of 1900 — Extension ot 
Education — Journalism and Literature — The Churches and Religion — 
Growth of the Principles of Toleration — The People and their Social 
Progress — Development of Patriotism — The Militia and its Growth — Out 
of Provincialism into Nationality — Canada for Canadians Within the 
Empire 562 

CHAPTER XXIX 

The Growth of National Prosperity 

Trade Between the Provinces — Industrial Expansion — Growth of the North- 
west — Wheat Upon the Prairies — Cattle in the Territories — Mineral 
Wealth of British Columbia and the Yukon — Agriculture and the Posi- 
tion of the Farmer — Mining in Ontario and Nova Scotia — Commercial 
Expansion — Progress of Canals, Railways and Steamship Lines — Ship- 
ping, Banking and Fisheries — Competition and General Progress . . . 597 

CHAPTER XXX 

External Relations of the Dominion 

Treaties between Great Britain and the United States — Those of 1783 and 
18 18 — A General Review of the Relations and Mutual Interests of the 
United Kingdom, Canada and the American Republic — Treaties which 
Have Failed — Fisheries and Reciprocity — The Behring Sea Arbitration 
— Canada, Venezuela and the Monroe Doctrine — The Alaska Boundary 
— American Efforts at Annexation — Canadian Opinion upon the Subject 
— Feeling Toward the Mother-land — Past Complexities in the Situation 
— The Present View and Probable Future 620 




CO 

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o 




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



Pacs 

Her Majesty the Queen- Empress 

(1900) Frontispiece 

H.R. H. The Prince Consort . . " 

The Hon. John A. Macdonald 

(in 1S54) vii 

The Right Hon. Sir John A. Mac- 
donald, P.C, G.C.B. . . . vii 

Her Majesty Queen Victoria (at 

the time of Confederation) . xv 

H. R. H. The Prince of Wales 

(when visiting Canada) . . xv 

Major-General Sir William Pepper- 
ell at the Siege of Louisbourg 17 

Samuel de Champlain 21 

Jacques Cartier 21 

Natural Steps, Montmorenci, near 

Quebec 32 

Thayendanegea (Joseph Brant) . 57 

Tecumseh 57 

Marguerite Bourgeois 68 

Magdalen de la Peltrie 68 

Mgr. Jean Octave Plessis .... 68 

Mgr. Francois de Laval 68 

Louis Joseph, Marquis de Mont- 
calm 77 

Major-General James Wolfe ... 77 
Death of General Wolfe on the 

Plains of Abraham 88 

The Falls of Niagara, Canadian side 97 
Jerome le Rover de la Dauver- 

siere 108 

Paul Chomede)' de Maisonneuve . 108 
Francois, Due de Levis, Marshal 

of France 108 



Page 

Lieut. -General J. Graves Simcoe . 108 
Scene in the Thousand Islands, St. 

Lawrence River 133 

Guy Carleton, Lord Dorchester . 144 
John George Lambton, ist Earl of 

Durham 144 

Chateau de Ramezay, Montreal .153 
Old Hudson's Bay Company Post, 

near Montreal 153 

Archbishop Tache 164 

The Rev. Dr. Samuel S. Nelles . 164 
The Rev. Dr. R. A. Fyfe .... 164 
The Most Rev. Dr. Francis Ful- 

ford 164 

Buildings and Scenes of Historical 

Interest in Old and New 

Canada 173 

Cape Eternity and Cape Trinity, 

Saguenay River, Quebec . . iSo 
Col. The Hon. C m! de Sala- 

berrj', C.B 189 

Major-General Sir Isaac Brock . 1S9 
The Battle of Queenston Heights, 

October 13, 1813 200 

The Hon. Sir John Beverley Rob- 
inson, Bart., C.B., D.C.L. . 209 
Charles Poulett Thomson, Lord 

Sydenham 209 

The Hon. Robert Baldwin, C.B. . 220 
The Hon. Sir Louis Hypolite La- 

fontaine, Bart 220 

The Right Rev. and Hon. Dr. John 

Strachan 229 

The Rev. Dr. Egerton Ryerson . 229 
Thomas Chandler Haliburton . .240 

xiii 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



Pack 

William Lyon Mackenzie .... 240 
The Hon. Louis Joseph Papineau 240 
Sir John George Bourinot . . . 240 
James Bruce, Sth Earl of Elgin 

and Kincardine 249 

William Kingsford, LL.D. . . . 260 
The Rev. Dr. Henry Wilkes . 260 

The Hon. John Young 260 

Colonel George McDonell, C.B. . 260 
The Hon. Luc Letellier deSt. Just 269 
The Hon. Sir Albert J. Smith . 269 
The Hon. Sir Adams G. Archi- 
bald. K.C.M.G 269 

The Hon. Thomas D'ArcyMcGee, 269 
The Hon. Lemuel Allan Wilmot 280 
The Hon. Joseph Howe .... 280 
General Sir William Fenwick Wil- 
liams, Bart., (of Kars) . . . 280 
Major-General Sir Howard Doug- 
las, G.C.B 2S0 

The Hon. George Brown . . . .289 
The Rev. Dr. George Douglas . . 300 
The Rev. Principal Caven, D.D. 300 
The Rev. Dr. John Cook . ... 300 
The Rev. Dr. James Richardson . 300 
The Hon. Sir Oliver Mowat . . . 309 
The Hon. John Sandfield Mac- 

donald, Q C, M.L.A. . . . 309 
The Hon. Edward Palmer . . .316 
The Hon. Sir William Young, Knt. 316 
The Hon. Sir John Campbell 

Allen, Knt 316 

The Hon. George E. King, LL.D. 316 
The Hon. Sir Alexander T. Gait 325 
The Hon. Sir Francis Hincks . . 325 
The Right Hon. Sir John Rose, 

Bart., P.C, G.C.M.G. ... 325 

Sir Ettiene P. Tache 325 

The Hon. Sir William Ralph 

Meredith, Kut 336 

H. E. Elzear Alexandre, Cardinal 

Taschereau 336 



The Hon. Honore Mercier, QC. 336 
Sir William C. Van Home . . . 336 
Sir J. W. Trutch, K.C.M.G. . . 345 
The Hon. George A. Walkem . . 345 
The Hon. Theodore Davie . . . 345 

The Hon. John Robson 345 

The Hon. P. J. O. Chanveau, Q.C. 356 
The Hon. C. E. B. de Boucher- 

ville, C.M.G 356 

The Hon. Sir Narcisse F. Belleau 356 
The Hon. Thomas White, M.P. . 356 
Visit of H.R.H. The Prince of 

Wales to Toronto in 1S60 . . 365 
Field Marshal, Viscount Wolseley 376 
The Hon. William McDougall, 

C.B 376 

The Hon. F. W. G. Haultain . . 385 
The Hon. John Xorquay .... 385 
The Hon. Thomas Green way . . 385 
The Hon. Hugh J. Macdonald, 

QC 385 

Sir Charles Hibbert Tupper . . . 396 
The Hon. Sir Adolphe J. P. R. 

Caron, K.C.M.G 396 

The Hon. Sir Alexander Camp- 
bell, K.C.M.G 396 

The Hon. Sir D. L. Macpherson, 

K.C.M.G 396 

The Hon. Sir Richard J. Cart- 
wright, K.C.M.G., M.P. . . 405 
The Hon. Edward Blake, Q.C. . 405 
The Hon. Sir Antoine A. Dorion 405 
The Hon. Sir George E. Cartier 405 
The Hon. Sir Hector L. Lange- 

vin, K.C.M.G., C.B 416 

The Hon. Sir Adolphe Chapleau 416 
The Hon. Sir Samuel Leonard 

Tilley, K.C.M.G., C.B. . . . 416 
The Hon. George Eulas Foster .416 
Sir Sandford Fleming. K.C.M.G. 425 

Sir Joseph Hickson, Knt 425 

Sir William E. Logan, LL.D. . . 425 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



Page 

Sir Hugh Allan, Knt 425 

George Stephen, ist Lord Mount 

Stephen 436 

Donald A. Smith, Lord Strath- 

cona and Mount Roj'al . . 436 
Sir J. William Dawson, C.B. . . 445 
Principal George M. Grant, D.D. 445 
Louis H. Frechette, C.M.G. . . 445 
Nicholas Flood Davin, Q.C. . . . 445 

Battle of Batoche 456 

Battle of Cut Knife Hill . . . . 456 

Major-General Sir F. D. Middle- 
ton, K.C.M.G., C.B 465 

Lieutenant-Colonel A. T. H. Wil- 
liams, M.P 465 

The Hon. George W. Ross, LL-D. 476 
The Hon. David Mills, Q.C . . 476 
The Hon. William Stevens Field- 
ing, M.P 476 

The Hon. Andrew G. Blair, Q.C. 476 
Gilbert Parker, D.C.L., M.P. . . 485 
William Wilfrid Campbell ... 485 

Archibald Lampman 485 

Charles G. D. Roberts 485 

Parliament Buildings, Toronto . 496 
University of Trinity College, 

Toronto 496 

The Marquess of Lome, G.C.M.G., 

9th Duke of Argyll .... 505 
H. R. H. The Princess Louise, 

Marchioness of Lome . . . 505 
Charles, Lord Monck, G. C.M.G. 505 
The Right Hon. Sir John Young, 

ist Lord Lisgar 505 



Page 

The Marquess of Lansdowne . .516 
Lord Stanley of Preston, G. C.B. , 

1 6th Earl of Derby . . . .516 

The Earl of Aberdeen, G. C.M.G. 516 

His Excellency, The Earl of 

Minto, G. C.M.G 516 

The Hon. Alexander Mackenzie . 525 
The Hon. Sir Mackenzie Bowell . 525 
The Right Hon. Sir John Thomp- 
son, P.C, K. C.M.G 536 

The Hon. Sir John J. C. Abbott . 536 
Scene in the South African War . 545 

Field Marshal Lord Roberts and 
Four Canadian Ofiicers in the 
South African War of 1899- 
1900 556 

Henry H. M. Herbert, 4th Earl of 
Carnarvon 565 

The Right Hon. Joseph Chamber- 
lain, M.P 565 

The Hon. Sir Charles Tupper, 

Bart, G. C.M.G., C.B 576 

Quebec Citadel 585 

Mgr. Diomede Falconio 596 

Mgr. RafFaelle Merry del Val . . 596 

The Battle of Paardeberg, South 

Africa, 1900 605 

The Right Hon. Sir Wilfrid Lau- 

rier, G.C.M.G , P.C, M.P. . 616 
The Marquess of Dufferin and Ava 616 
The Houses of Parliament at 

Ottawa 625 

The Canadian House of Commons 

in Session, 1900 636 




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CHAPTER I 
Discoveries and Explorations 

FLOATING down the stream of the ages have come many 
interesting myths and traditions regarding the Continent of 
America and that half of its vast area which has since become 
the Dominion of Canada. Plato, the Greek, described a mighty 
island of Atlantis which was supposed to have been submerged by 
the waters of a boundless sea, but was far more probably shrouded 
from sight by passing centuries of ignorant indifference. Seneca, 
the Spanish teacher of the youthful Nero, taught his Imperial pupil 
of a great continent which should one day defy the darkness of 
unknown waters and appear beyond the ultimate bounds of Thule. 
A Chinese record of the fifth century indicates a possible Buddhist 
visit to Mexico ; and Welsh traditions of a later date record the 
mythical voyage of Madoc, in the twelfth century, to a far western 
country where he saw many strange sights and scenes. The sifting 
influence of historic research has, however, left these and many other 
stories to take their place beside the romantic quest for the Golden 
Fleece and similar legends of an olden time. 

VOYAGES OF THE NORSEMEN 

More satisfactory, because more stable in basis, are the records of 
Norse invasion and Viking adventure. Sailing from out their rugged 
shores about the middle of the Christian era, these wandering ocean 
warriors played a great part in rhe history of lands bordering upon 
the sea. Brave to rashness, and sturdy and stubborn in pursuit of 
gold, or silver, or precious stones, they made piracy almost respecta- 
ble in days when power belonged to him who could hold it, and 
2 17 



I8 DISCOVERIES AND EXPLORATIONS 

property to him who could take it. There seems little reason to 
doubt that the small hut strong wooden vessels of the sea-kings 
sighted the shores of America and beached their prows on the coast 
of Canada. Iceland and the Faroe Islands, we know, were settled 
by the Norsemen in the ninth century. Eric the Red, of Norway, 
occupied the coast of Greenland in A. D. 986, and one of his colo- 
nists was a little later swept by stormy seas into sight of unknown 
lands to the south and west. Leif Ericson, in the year 1000. under- 
took the exploration of these strange new regions, and appears to 
have touched the continent where Labrador now is. Other points 
which he claims to have seen were called Helluland, Markland and 
Vinland. Whether these places were really the Island of New- 
foundland, the coast of Nova Scotia, and the shores of Massachu- 
setts, as is respectively alleged, will probably remain a hopelessly 
disputed point. 

TALES OF VIKING HEROES 

There are strone reasons for believin«r in some measure the 
truth of the Icelandic Sagas, from whence these traditions are 
derived, and it is probable that the songs which thus sing weird 
tales of Viking heroes upon the Atlantic shores of Canada and 
the United States have a firmer ground of fact to support their 
swelling words than has many an accepted event of old-time East- 
ern and European history. Still, so far as the world at large was 
concerned, nothing but faint rumours and mvthical tales had resulted 
from these passing settlements upon the soil of America or sweeping 
glimpses of its lonely shores. 

To really make this vast region known to humanity required 
a period of growing maritime comm^;rce as well as of stirring adven- 
ture — a time when the Orient, with its wealth of mystery and 
romance, of silks and spices, of gold and silver and gems, was 
being brought closer to the eye and the mind of Europe. It 



DISCOVERIES AND EXPLORATIONS 19 

required the discovery of the compass and the wider knowledge of 
navigation which grew so naturally out of that event. It was made 
imminent by the Portuguese discovery of the Cape of Good Hope, 
in i486, and inevitable by the growth of British maritime ambitions 
and the sea-dog spirit of the sturdy islanders. It became a fact 
when Columbus, after imbibing the love of the sea from his birth- 
place of Genoa, sailed the Mediterranean and the nearer waters of the 
Atlantic for twenty years and then made up his mind to discover a 
direct route to the East Indies. For long after coming to this con- 
clusion, he haunted the courts of Europe, and finally impressed his 
belief in these new lands, and his faith in a new route to the East, 
upon the generous Isabella of Castile. The discovery of San Salva- 
dor and other islands of the West India group which followed, in 
the memorable year 1492, opened the way not only to a new world 
in territorial magnitude but to the greatest empires of history and to 
newer civilizations and larger liberties. 

Cabot's place in history 
It remained, hov/ever, for a Venetian, sailing under the flag of 
England, to first touch the mainland of the continent. John Cabot 
has only now, after lying in the silence of forgotten dust during four 
long- centuries, come into recognized honour and deserved renown. 
Whether, in 1497, he touched the shores of Canada amid the cold and 
ice of Labrador, or in the wilder country of Nova Scotia, there seems 
every reason to believe that he did reach it somewhere between those 
two regions.* A monument at Bristol, from which he sailed, and a 
memorial at Halifax, which he made possible as a British seaport 
and city, agree in marking the great importance of his work. Colum- 
bus, of course, had preceded him in touching the island fringe of 

* Aathorities differ greatly in opinion as to Cabot's landing place. Judge Prowse believes that he first touched the 
shores of Newfoundland, while Dr. Harvey favours the Cape Breton theory. Labrador is supported by H. Harrisse, and 
in earlier days by Humboldt and Biddle, But the bulk of modern opinion, including Sir Clements Markham, Signor 
Tarducci, R. G. Thwaites, and Sir J. G. Bourinot, is strongly in favour of Cape Breton as the landing place. This 
view has recently received almost conclusive support and proof at the hands of Dr. S. E. Dawson, of Ottawa. 



20 DISCOVERIES AND EXPLORATIONS 

the continent; Init the great unknown mainland still rested in the 
shadow of silent ages. And it is now remembered at the bar of 
history that Cabot sailed seas of a stormier character than Columbus 
ever saw; that his resources were infinitely less; that his rewards 
were far smaller, while his life-work was disregarded for centuries. 

Yet it was he who first planted the English flag upon American 
shores, and paved the way for English settlements in Newfoundland 
and English naval supremacy in western seas. His discovery gave 
an immediate impetus also to the maritime spirit of England, and it 
supplied a later claim for her to share in the soil and history and 
stirring development of the whole American continent. 

Following Columbus and Cabot came a stream of adventurers, 
explorers and navigators. Sebastian, a son of John Cabot, sailed 
alongf the shores of the new land from Nova Scotia to the region of 
Hudson's Straits and was probably appalled by the melancholy 
dreariness of the coasts of Labrador. The eastern coast, further to 
the south, was explored in 1498 by Americus Vespucius and after him 
the whole continent came in time to be called. A few years later, 
Cortereal, a Portuguese, inspired by the enterprise \vhich in those 
days gave his country an empire of commerce and unappreciated soil, 
explored the shores of Newfoundland and Labrador and inaugurated 
the intercourse of Europeans with the Red men by carrying a number 
of them away into slaver)-. In 1506, Denis of Hontleur, a French- 
man of unrecorded position, visited the future Gulf of St. Lawrence 
and boldly declared the whole region annexed to France and subject 
to its Crown. He brought back with him a kidnapped Indian child 
which represented the brutal instincts of so-called civilization when in 
contact with barbarism ; a considerable fund of knowledge which 
presently resulted in the appearance of Cartier upon the scene ; and 
a basis of claim to territory and possibilities of power which might 




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DISCOVERIES AND EXPLORATIONS 23 

have made Francis the greatest of European Sovereigns and his 
" Field of the Cloth of Gold " a reality rather than a pageant. 

It was not indeed the fault of French courage and enterprise if 
the land of Francis I, and Henry IV, and Louis XIV, did not become 
greater in the extent of its realm than Spain in even the palmiest 
days of its power or Great Britain at the present time. In 1534, 
Jacques Cartier, a Breton mariner of some repute, a protege of 
Philippe de Brion-Chabot, who was himself deep in the King's favour 
and a fervent believer in the policy of extending the King's empire 
in these unknown regions, set sail from St. Malo with two small ships 
containing i 20 men, and with dreams of power and performance which 
we can only estimate from the dauntless bearing of the man in 
difficulties and dangers of an after time and from the portraits of that 
rugged, alert, keen-eyed countenance which have come down to us. 

cartier's discoveries 

Reaching the coasts of Newfoundland on May loth he passed on 
to the Gulf of St. Lawrence and along the shores of the future Prince 
Edward Island to the mainland of New Brunswick. The season was 
opportune and his delighted men, as well as himself, revelled in a 
region of fertility and beauty which fairly enchanted their senses. 
Forests rich in the green shades of early summer, meadows full of 
rippling streams and wild fruits and coloured blossoms, rivers crowded 
with salmon and other fish, and even the air itself teeming with wild 
pigeons, greeted the surprised explorers. Indians, few in number 
but friendly in disposition, met and welcomed them. In July Cartier 
sailed away to further ventures with a natural feeling of elation in his 
heart at what he had already seen and experienced. The entrance to 
Miramichi Bay was passed, the sheltered beauties of an indentation 
which Cartier called the Bale des Chaleurs was left behind, the Gaspe 
shore was reached and here, with appropriate ceremony, Cartier set 
up a cross thirty feet in height bearing upon it a shield with the arms 



24 DISCOVERIES AND EXPLORATIONS 

of France. After appeasing the Indians, who had taken some natural 
alarm at tills action, he foolishly trapped two young savages and 
carried them away with him as practical proofs of his work and 
discoveries. Then, without further effort, though at this time in 
sieht of the shores of Anticosti and at the threshold of the noble 
river which he was afterwards to call the St. Lawrence, Cartier turned 
his prows homeward and once more faced the wide waters of the 
Atlantic. 

cartier's second voyage 

Like Cabot and Columbus he had little true conception of the 
land he had just left. To him, and to the imaginative people who 
received him in triumph at St. Male, or listened with eagerness to 
the tales of adventure and discovery w-hich grew in volume and 
vagueness as they traversed the interior, it was a fertile and lonely 
island and the great gulf of which he had partly coasted the shores 
was a gateway to the eastern passage which had so long been 
sought to the land of Cathay — the region of gold and romance and 
dreams. Popular enthusiasm was aroused. The King was stirred by 
new visions of empire and tribute. The priest was roused by the 
knowledge of new peoples to convert. The trader was interested by 
new possibilities of commerce and barter. As a consequence, Cartier 
sailed again from St. Malo, on May 19th, 1535, with three small 
ships, an aristocratic company of passengers, and the hopes and 
prayers of many. 

Once aeain he came in sio^ht of Anticosti which he called 
Assumption, and then approached a bay which received the memor- 
able name of St. Lawrence from the Saint whose feast day it chanced 
to be. Up the great river went the interested and charmed explorers, 
touching the grand and gloomy portals of the Saguenay, passing the 
tree-clad Isle aux Coudres, shunning the black shadows of Cape 
Tourmente, revcllino; in the wild vines and luxurious vegetation of 



DISCOVERIES AND EXPLORATIONS 25 

L'lle d' Orleans. There they received and concUiated the countless 
savages who came gliding in their swift and silent canoes from all the 
shores of the vast waterway to see what these strange white men, with 
their stranger white-winged and monstrous canoes, were doing on the 
little island which for the moment they had called the Isle of Bacchus. 

Leaving this place after a somewhat difficult but friendly confer- 
ence with Donnacona, the chief of these regions, Cartier's little 
squadron sailed further up the river and cast anchor at the mouth of 
the St. Charles and in view of the Indian village of Stadacona, as it 
nestled under the beetlinof erases which were to soon see above them 
the crowning ramparts of Quebec. Hence the ever-delighted 
explorers went on up the great river, and through the Lake St. Peter, 
until they reached the Indian town of Hochelaga where it rested 
under forest-crowned heights to which Cartier orave the name of 
Mount Royal. The expedition had been so far like some swiftly 
passing dream of pleasure. The sights and scenes of the noble river ; 
the flushinof, shiftingf g-orofeousness of summer and autumnal colours 
in the vast primeval forests which lined its banks ; the unbroken wild- 
ness and occasionally sombre splendour of cliff and crag and 
promontory ; the panorama of passing savage life and the unstinted 
hospitality of admiring and worshipping natives at Orleans, at 
Stadacona and now at Hochelaga; were enough to surely warrant 
the adventurous settlers in looking forward with confidence to the 
future. They returned, after a few days, to Stadacona loaded down 
with gifts from the friendly natives — boats heaped with fish and 
ripened corn — and with memories of a respect tinged with reverence 
and a confidence in their honour and goodness which should never 
have been shattered. 

But they had no real knowledge of what was coming to counter- 
balance the period of pleasantness now rapidly passing away. A 
glimpse at Acadie in days of summer loveliness, or of the shores of 



26 DISCOVERIES AND EXPLORATIONS 

the St. Lawrence garbed in autumnal beauty, was but ill preparation 

for the hlasts of winter whicli, in its most intense form of cold and its 
greatest abundance of ice and snow, was soon to be on them. By the 
time, indeed, that they had got their vessels into a sort of sheltered 
enclosure and put up some rough structures for themselves the 
change had come. 

A WINTER OF MUCH SUFFERING 

The terrors of that winter can hardly be adequately described. 
All about the prospective settlers was a boundless area of snow and 
ice. Their clothing was thin and adapted only to a mild and pleasant 
clime. Their fears were in proportion to their ignorance and their 
sufferines from a malignant form of scurvy were as oreat as from cold 
and other hardships. Twenty-five of the men died and by the time 
of early spring, with its first welcome signs of warmth and of the pass- 
ing away of that over-whelming nightmare of surrounding whiteness, 
the balance of the little party were tottering in feebleness on the brink 
of the grave. Fortunately, the Indians, had been kind, though sufifer- 
ing somewhat themselves and in spite of their natural hardiness, from 
the severity of the winter. They had prescribed a simple mixture 
for the sick which proved efficacious and indeed, probably saved the 
lives of the remaining white men. 

As soon as the loosening ice on the river permitted, Cartier 
turned two of his ships homeward, leaving one behind to be found 
307 years afterwards (1S43) sunk in the bed of the St. Charles. 
Before eoingr he seized Donnacona and nine of his chiefs, as visible 
trophies for the eye of Prance and as a lasting, though unintended, 
monument to his own follv and ingratitude. Thev died without 
seeing again their native land, and. in dying, left a legacy of future 
bitterness and pain to French settlers and the white man generally 
which it was well for Cartier he could not anticipate. 



DISCOVERIES AND EXPLORATIONS 2-j 

Again, in 1541, tlie intrepid explorer, with the patronage and 
co-operation of the Sieur de Roberval, a wealthy nobleman of Picardy, 
started for this scene of mingled pleasures and privations. Francis 
I. had, in the meantime, recovered a little from years of conflict 
with his powerful rival Charles V. of Spain and of the Holy Roman 
Empire, and had made De Roberval Viceroy of New France, with 
Cartier as Captain-General. The latter arrived at Stadacona in 
August and commenced a settlement a few miles higher up the river, 
which he called Charlesbourg ; and there he began to cultivate the 
soil and build a fort. The natives naturally proved unfriendly when 
they found that their chiefs had not returned with the white men, and 
the winter which ensued was full of gloom and dislieartening privation. 
A couple of vessels had been sent back to France for aid before the 
cold season began but, with the first flush of spring-time and without 
waiting their return, Cartier pulled up his stakes and started for home. 
Off the coast of Newfoundland he met De Roberval, himself, with 
three ships, plenty of provisions, and 200 new colonists of both sexes, 
and was commanded to return. But Cartier seems to have lost both 
head and heart so far as this enterprise was concerned and to have 
longed for a sight once more of the fair shores of sunny France. 
Whatever the reason, he disobeyed the orders of his superior and 
escaped during the night with his vessels and men. 

De Roberval went on to his destination, put up a large building 
for the mixed purpose of accommodation and defence and prepared 
to face a winter of whose severity he only knew by vague hear-say. 
The privations of the season were enhanced by the unfriendliness of 
the natives as well as by the character of the convicts who constituted 
a large portion of his following. Sixty men perished during these 
weary months from cold, or hunger, or scurvy, while the cord and 
whips and prison found a place in connection with many others of the 
insubordinate, would-be colonists. In the spring De Roberval, who 



28 DISCOVERIES AND EXPLORATIONS 

was a brave and venturesome leader, attempted to explore the 
unknown interior, but witliout success and with the loss of some eight 
men by drowning. He clung to his settlement, however, during 
another winter of hardships and then at last fled back to France. Five 
years later, when his memories of scurvy and starvation, of snow and 
ice, of hand-to-mouth living upon fish and roots, had become some- 
what dimmed, or perhaps forgotten in a sudden rush of summer 
recollections and memories of the wild free life of the primeval forest 
and rolling rivers of the new world, De Roberval started again for 
the scene which seems to have had such intense fascination for those 
who once breathed its vastness of air and space. 

The result of that expedition of 1549 is one of the mysteries of 
history and, whether the tradition of its sailing up the dark waters of 
the Saguenay and being lost while searching for some land of gold 
and jewels and alleged enchantment is true, or not, will never be 
really known. It seems probable, however, that the gallant nobleman 
and his followers were either swallowed up in a storm at sea, or lost 
as the first European victims of an Indian fear which was soon to 
change into a bitter hatred. Cartier lived some years longer to enjoy 
the quiet of home life and the pleasures of a patent of nobility 
which had come to the brave seaman of St. Malo as a reward for the 
efforts of his stirrine and viaorous career. 

THE FRENCH AND THE ENGLISH 

During the next fifty years these adventurous efforts to found a 
New France beyond the seas were forgotten in the storms of internal 
dissension and war which came to old France. England, which in 
the period just considered had been devoting the energies of her 
picturesque buccaneers and always gallant seamen to the gold-ships 
of Spain and the settlements on South American shores, or in the 
West Indies, made by the same great Power, now turned her attention 
to the north. Sir Martin Frobisher set foot on the coasts of 



DISCOVERIES AND EXPLORATIONS 29 

Labrador in 1576; Sir P'rancis Drake in the following year sighted 
the snowy mountain tops of British Columbia ; Sir Humphry 
Gilbert, in 1583, led an expedition of well-equipped and gallant 
colonists to the shores of Newfoundland and took possession of the 
Island, whose harbours were thronged by cod-fishing fleets from 
France, Spain, Portugal and England, in the name of Queen Elizabeth. 
He established English authority, enacted various laws, and pro- 
claimed, under Royal charter, his possession of the soil for 600 miles 
in every direction from St. John's — a region which included New 
Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Labrador, and part of Quebec as they are 
in modern days. Considerable exploring work was done by the 
gallant Admiral, whose character of mingled truth and gentleness 
and dauntless courage fills such an attractive page in history. It was 
beautifully exemplified as he sat in the stern of his frail and founder- 
ing vessel, during the return voyage to England in the stormy winter 
season, and sank to his final rest with the words of consolation to his 
crew : " Cheer up lads, we are as near to Heaven at sea as on land." 
Once more, as the century drew to its close, French enterprise 
beoan to re-assert itself and the mantle of the ill-fated De Roberval 
was taken up by a nobleman of Brittany, the Marquis de la Roche. 
In 1598 he obtained appointment from the King as Viceroy of New 
France and prepared an expedition of one ship which he filled with a 
crew gathered from the common prisons. It was an ill-beginning 
with a worse ending. He reached, in summer season, the shifting 
sands of Sable Island and found there plenty of good water and herds 
of wild cattle bred from those left byDeLery's settlement of eighty 
years before. It seemed an excellent place to leave his convict 
colonists at while he went on a further voyage of exploration. He 
landed them for a period, which he promised should be brief, and 
started for the mainland only to be swept out to sea by a sudden 
storm and back to France. There he was seized by a powerful rival 



30 DISCOVERIES AND EXPLORATIONS 

and consigned to prison. When at last he got word to King Henry 
and was allowed to take a ship out to the rescue of his would-be 
settlers it was to find himself face to face with one of the dark 
tragedies of history and to discover only a pitiful remnant of shaggy, 
despairing creatures who looked more like brutes than men. 

They had, at first, been delighted with their liberty, with the 
balmy freshness of the summer air, with the brief abundance of fresii 
meat and the wild berries clustering to the lip. But the cattle began 
to disappear, time commenced to hang heavy on their hands, no 
returning ship was visible, the heat was occasionally intense, and was 
suddenly succeeded by the first storms of autumn sweeping over the 
low and unprotected surface of the level, treeless island. Then came 
the sense of desertion, the feeling of unutterable despair, the loneli- 
ness of intense isolation, the cruel, imcontrolled passion of men 
without moral or religious scruple. They fought and tried to kill 
each other and then there came sweeping down, and around them, 
the wintry storms of the wildest and most exposed spot on the whole 
Atlantic coast. How any of them ever survived that winter is a 
marvel — that some did live through it is a fact. Broken in health 
and heart and fortune, De la Roche returned to l-~rance with the 
miserable remnant of his expedition, and died soon afterwards. 

Meanwhile an effort had been made by a naval officer of Rouen, 
named Chauvin, and a trader of St. Malo, called Pontgrave, to 
establish a colony on the shores of the St. Lawrence for purposes of 
fur-trading. They procured from the King certain rights of 
monopoly and the beginning was made of what eventually became a 
great business. The small settlement started for this purpose at 
Tadoussac, near the junction of the Saguenay and the St. Lawrence, 
was not however as successful in a colonizinor sense. Sixteen men 
were left to hold the port through the winter of 1599 and, in the very 
season which proved so fatal to the miserable refugees on Sable 




o 
■ji 
o 
.a 

D 
0> 

< 

2 



DISCO VERIES AND EX PL OR A TIONS 33 

Island, the ill-equipped and ignorant colonists on the mainland were 
dying of cold and starvation. When the spring traders came again 
they found their little colony broken up and only two or three 
survivors living amongst the Indians. The fur-trade was continued, 
but no further effort at colonization was made at this time. 

Elsewhere, and amid very different surroundings, the continent 
was being claimed or explored. Balboa had discovered the Pacific 
Ocean and dispelled the dream of America being a part of Asia. 
Spain, at the hands of Cortez and Pizarro and Ponce de Leon, had 
conquered or claimed the empires of Mexico and Peru and the wilder 
glades of Florida. England had established a fugitive settlement 
or two in Virginia, and Port Royal was soon to be founded and 
Acadie become an historic name on the Atlantic coast of the present 
Dominion. 

THE CAREER OF CHAMPLAIN 

The pivotal point in the establishment of Canada, or New 
France, was, however, the career of Champlain. This greatest char- 
acter in the early period of its history was a gentleman by birth and 
a native of Bruage, on the Biscayan coast, where he was born in 1567. 
He became a Captain of the Royal Marines in later years and was a 
soldier in the wars of the League, under Henry of Navarre. With a 
combined experience of sea and shore, the inspiration of Henry's 
patriotic character, the possession of personal qualities of courage, 
chivalry and religious zeal, Champlain was an ideal pioneer leader. 
In him the zeal of the missionary is said to have tempered the fire of 
patriotism and there is no question of a devotion to duty which 
scorned privation and disappointment, and a courage which endured 
all things for the achievement of a far-away end. When internal peace 
came to France, by the accession of Henry IV., Champlain had soon 
tired of the life of Courts and had journeyed to the West Indies and 
Mexico. It was, therefore, very natural when the King turned his 



34 DISCOVERIES AND EXPLORATIONS 

attention and ambition to tlic new world and Aymar de Chastes, 
Governor of Dieppe, was given permission to resume the work of 
colonization, that he should see in Champlain the man for the work. 
It was readily taken up by him and, in 1603, accompanied by Pont- 
grave of fur-trade fame, and commanding two tiny vessels of twelve 
and fifteen tons burthen, he crossed the stormy seas, sailed up the 
solitary St. Lawrence, passed the deserted out-post of Tadoussac, the 
now vacant site of the Indian village at Stadacona, the ruined build- 
ings of Cartier at Cape Rouge, and came in time to the tenantless 
site of the once beautiful and flourishing Hochelaga. Neither the 
mighty rock of Quebec, nor the lofty sides of Mount Royal, now 
sheltered the wigwams and huts of the one-time friendly natives. 
Nothing was done by the expedition, excepting the capture of a 
cargo of furs, and on their return the two leaders found, to their 
serious loss, that the generous De Chastes was dead and that Henry's 
mind was filled for the moment with other thoughts. 

For a year after this Champlain remained in France and then 
accompanied De RIonts and Poutrincourt upon their colonizing 
venture in Acadie, the land of winter ice and snow and summer love- 
liness — changing conditions which it seemed impossible for the early 
French settlers to fully grasp in all their significance of needed prepa- 
ration and adaptation. Then followed the ups and downs of several 
years, the foundation of Port Royal and its capture by the English 
who, meanwhile, had been making firm their ground in Mrginia, as 
they did a little later in Newfoundland and endeavoured to do on the 
shores of Hudson's Bay. The unfortunate navigator, who gave his 
name to the great inland sea, lost his life in its exploration, though 
he left behind an English claim to sovereignty of its shores based 
upon his service under an English King. Before this occurred 
Champlain had tired of the plots and complications of Acadian settle- 
ment and, under the patronage of Sieur de Monts, and accompanied 



DISCO VERIES AND EX PL OR A TIONS 35 

by Pontgrave, had turned his attention once more to the St. Lawrence 
and to what was to be the frreat work of his life. 

In 1 60S, therefore, tlie determined colonizer and the vigorous 
trader started together up the great and silent river and reached 
again the spot where Stadacona had once stood. Upon the deserted 
site and under the shelter of the beetling rock upon which his future 
fortress was to be established, Champlain laid the foundations of 
Quebec. It was but a village, square in shape, with wooden build- 
ings, and surrounded by a wooden wall and ditch, fortified by bastions 
and guns. But it was enough for the moment and to the man who 
had the instinct of empire and government in his breast. Before very 
long he detected and suppressed with severe punishments a plot on 
the part of the fur-traders to do away with his stern but wholesome 
rule and to make trade the entire aim, instead of the subsidiary con- 
dition, of the settlement. The chief conspirator was promptly hung 
and others were sent to France in chains, or condemned to the galleys. 

AN EVENT OF LASTING CONSEQUENCES 

During the following year occurred an event which had lasting 
consequences and was the nominal cause of the prolonged and bloody 
conflict between Iroquois and French. Its importance has probably 
been exaggerated as the feud was inevitable in any case. The Iroquois 
would have brooked no rival to their savage empire had Cham- 
plain never given any assistance to the Hurons whom they had 
long intended to crush and did eventually crush. Moreover, they 
were quick as the wolves which roamed the wilderness in count- 
less numbers, to detect the presence of danger, and, no doubt, had 
already heard traditions and plentiful rumours of the conduct of 
Cartier and other explorers in deceiving and seizing friendly natives 
— perhaps members of wandering bands with which they may have 
been on friendly terms. Be that as it may, however, Champlain did 
certainly precipitate the issue when, in the early summer of 1609, he 



36 DISCOVERIES AND EXPLORATIONS 

espoused the cause of the Ottawa Algonquins, as friends and allies of 
the Ilurons, and started from Quebec with eleven Frenchmen and a 
flotilla of canoes filled with Indians, to attack the fiercest and ablest 
of all the Indian tribes or nations. Three-fourths of the native fol- 
lowers early deserted the expedition as the result of a quarrel and he 
sent back all but two of his own men to Quebec. 

Then, with only sixty Indians in his train, but with a dauntless 
bearinj^r and determination which carried all before him, the " man 
with the iron breast" proceeded upon his journey into the vast, 
unknown interior. Over rapids and foaming falls, upon varied rivers 
and great lakes, through dense forests and a primeval W'ilderness, the 
intrepid soldier fought his way. He discovered the Lake Champlain 
of a later day and upon its shores met the Iroquois in battle. It was 
a picturesque scene. Here, amid forests centuries old the military 
civilization of Europe stood for the first time face to face with the 
not ignoble savagery of America. Champlain, with his steel breast- 
plate and plumed casque, his matchlock in hand, his sword by his side 
and his little group of followers behind him quietly awaited the attack 
of two hundred of the fiercest, tallest and strongest savasfes of the 
new world ! The war-whoop of the Indians was met by a discharge 
from the French leader's matchlock which killed or wounded three of 
the Iroquois braves. This use of lightning to destroy his enemies 
with was too much for the superstition of the natives and they fled 
precipitately. Many were killed and some captured and Champlain, 
for the first time, beheld the tortures of which he had probably heard 
much and which the Algonquins at once proceeded to inflict upon the 
prisoners. 

During the succeeding year Champlain took another journey and 
reached the mouth of the Richelieu, where he once more fought and 
overcame a body of Iroquois who had, in this case, placed themselves 
inside a barricade which had to be stormed and captured. In 1613, 



DISCO VERIES AND EX PL OR A TIONS 3 7 

the adventurous pioneer, with only five companions and two small 
canoes, went on a long journey of exploration. He passed with diffi- 
culty around the Longue Sault and Carillon Rapids, paddled up the 
Ottawa to the Rideau Falls and the foaming cataract of the Chau- 
diere, and reached Allumette Island. There he rested for a while 
before turning back, while all around him was the solitude of vast 
wilds unbroken by any sounds save those of nature. Champlain 
imagined much and hoped much, but not even he, with all his 
visionary expectations of finding a path to the silks and spices of the 
far East, could have dreamed of this very region one day becoming 
the home of splendid legislative halls and' the seat of government in 
a great British country. Two years later he organized another expe- 
dition against the Iroquois and this time pushed further up the 
Ottawa until he reached the Mattawa, crossed by a short portage into 
Lake Nipissing and thence descended the French River until the 
vast expanse of Lake Huron was reached. Upon the shores of 
Georgian Bay, its great inlet, he collected an Indian force from 
amongst the palisaded villages of the Hurons which then crowded the 
rolling and fertile fields of the future County of Simcoe. 

EXPEDITIONS AGAINST THE IROQUOIS 

In September he led a large war-party by the channel of the 
Trent to Lake Ontario, crossed it at a narrow point and then, leaving 
their canoes, his Indians stole like shadows through the brilliant 
autumnal woods till they came to a well-guarded and palisaded town 
of the Onondagas. A sudden and wild attack was repulsed, the les- 
sons in skilled warfare which Champlain had tried to give his reckless 
braves were unobserved, and a second onslaught met with the same 
result. He himself was wounded, his prestige was largely^gone and 
the Hurons became thoroughly disheartened. Reinforcements were 
awaited but did not come and, five days later, they made haste home- 
ward, carrying with them a leader who was suffering from a sore 



38 



DtSCOVERIES AND EXPLORATIONS 



heart as well as a wounded body. Promises to take him back to 
Quebec were broken, and he had to winter amongst the tribes. With 
him, however, was the Recollet priest, Le Caron, and Champlain 
occupied his time b\ hc^lpiny^ in the foundation of a mission, in visit- 
ing allied tribes, and in patching up a dispute between the Algonquins 
and the Hurons. In the spring he returned to Quebec and was wel- 
comed by those who had given up all hope of ever seeing him again. 
This was his last distant expedition of a warlike or exploring 
character. In 1620 the Iroquois came swarming down upon the 
French fortress at Quebec and around the stone convent of the 
Recollets on the St. Charles, but were unable to do more than harry 
the country and capture some Hurons who, in one case, were tor- 
tured to death before the eyes of the horrified priests of the St. 
Charles. A little later, Champlain had to suppress a plot for the 
destruction of Quebec amongst an Algonquin tribe — the Montagnais 
— whom he had greatly befriended and helped and whose treacher)- 
cut him to the quick. But, although no more active campaigns were 
undertaken by him, he had to face the continued and sleepless hatred 
of the Iroquois, and no man knew from day to day and year to year 
at what moment the war-whoop of the savage might not be heard 
from the four quarters of the horizon. Some good came out of the 
evil which the brave Frenchman had created by increasing and 
deepening the hostility of the Iroquois. It made the Hurons more 
amenable to French and missionary influence and this Champlain 
would have considered the greatest of all jrood ends. 

DISCOVERY OF THE GREAT L.VKES 

Champlain, during this part of his career, had discovered Lake 
Champlain and Lake Nipissing, Lake Huron and Lake Ontario, and 
had explored the great Ottawa and many a lesser stream. He had 
proven the pioneer of French energy in a vast region to which he 
laid claim in the name of his King. This was much for one man to 



DISCOVERIES AND EXPLORATIONS 39 

do, but it was by no means all that he achieved. From 161 2 to 1629, 
from 1633 to his death two years later, he governed strongly and well 
the New France which he fondly hoped Avas going to be a great 
empire for his country and his race. During these years his difficul- 
ties were immense. Not only was there trouble with the Indians 
and with refractory settlers, but there was the reckless criminality of 
the fur-traders who corrupted the savages with brandy and too often 
taught them other phases of immorality which they had never known. 
Over and over again the lordship, or viceroyalty, of New France 
changed hands. There was neither continuity of system nor govern- 
ment. The Associated Merchants of St. Malo and Rouen held power 
for a time under the nominal rule of the Prince de Conde and strove 
in vain to oust Champlain from his position. Then two Huguenot 
eentlemen — brothers named De Caen — obtained the fur-trading 
monopoly, and religious disputes began to trouble a Colony shadowed 
at that very moment by the scalping-knife of the Iroquois. To them 
succeeded the Due de Ventadour, whose object was neither trade nor 
settlement but the salvation of souls. Under his patronage Jesuit 
priests began to pour into the country and to follow the savages to 
their lairs in every part of a vast and unknown region. 

Another change came when Richelieu succeeded to power in 
France. He strengthened Champlain's hands for the moment, 
founded in 162S the Company of the Hundred Associates with 
Champlain as a member and with a charter of trade and power 
extending over New France, Acadie, Newfoundland, and Florida; 
proclaimed the Colony an absolutely Catholic possession and forbade 
the settlement of a Protestant within its bounds ; pledged the 
Company to send out 6,000 settlers within fifteen years ; and gave to 
the Company, as a personal gift from the King, two well-armed battle- 
ships. But all this was of little avail for some years. War was being 
waged with England, supplies had been cut off, the little Colony was 



40 DISCOVERIES AND EXPLORATIONS 

Starving or living upon roots and, in 1629, Admiral Kirke sailed up 
the St. Lawrence and captured the place. P>y the Treaty of St. 
Germain-cn-Layc in 1632 New France and Acadie were given up 
again by England, Champlain was restored to his post, the settlement 
became a devout centre for the conversion of savages, lawlessness 
was suppressed and trading interests were made subservient to 
administrative necessities. Everything promised a prolonged period 
of peace and progress. 

On Christmas Day, 1635, however, the only man who could have 
achieved such conditions in a permanent sense died suddenly, with an 
horizon of hoped-for rest and happiness in full view. During five 
years of the earlier period his brave wife had lived with him and then 
he had insisted upon taking her back to France. But for years he 
had been without her and was now looking forward to a settled home 
and a reasonably quiet life in this Colony which he had founded and 
guarded and nursed as a mother might her only child. He had 
fought the Iroquois, fought the convict spirit of early settlers, fought 
the intrigues of court and religious interests, fought the fur-traders' 
greed and cruelty, fought the English invader and the still worse 
enemies of cold and hunger. He had conquered all, but was now, at last, 
himself beaten by death. 1 lis career presents a most striking picture 
and he well deserves his place as a hero, not only of French Canada 
but of all Canada, whether French or English. 

LA S.\L1.E A.VD Till-: IXTEKIOK 

DurincT these later years others besides Champlain had been 
traversino- the wilds and notintr the location of vast unknown bodies 
of water. Jesuit priests and French trappers and hunters passed up 
the rivers and reached the shores of countless lakes — south and east 
and west from the St. Lawrence. The one class was seeking 
souls and the other furs — but they all traversed new regions and 
encountered the forces of nature in some of its greatest environments. 



DISCOVERIES AND EXPLORATIONS 41 

Lake Michig-an was sig^hted by Jean Nicolet in 1634, Lake Erie by- 
Fathers Chamonot and Brcbeuf in 1640, Lake Superior by some 
now forgotten Coicrcurs dc bois in 1659. Father Marquette and a 
fur-trader named JolHete saw the upper waters of the Mississippi for 
the first time in 1673 ^"d paddled down past the mouths of the 
Illinois, the Missouri and the Ohio. Meantime, Nicolas Perrot, a 
darino- adventurer whose career is one loner series of thrillincr incidents, 
was the first white man to stand upon the site of Chicago, as, in 1671, 
Father Albanal was the first European to appear upon the shores of 
the stormy waters in which Hudson had perished nearly a century 
before. Seven years from this last date Father Hennepin, looking 
out from the dense woods he had been traversingf amid the sullen 
roar of some great wonder of nature, beheld the Falls of Niagara in 
all their primeval splendour and solitude. 

Much, therefore, was being done in the later days of Champlain 
and more was done in the fifty years which followed to unroll the 
map of North America. Still, it was all so vast and vague, the 
knowledge so varied and detached, that there was little real conception 
of the connected position of the five Great Lakes, with their 
innumerable satellites and feeding rivers and their out-pour through 
the St. Lawrence into the sea. The vision of a route to Cathay, or 
the enchanted East, yet lingered in many minds and even affected the 
gallant La Salle as, after various adventures, the expenditure of 
private means upon fur-trading expeditions and minor explorations, 
he set out in 1682 to find the mouth of the Mississippi and, perhaps, 
a passage to China itself. Accompanied by Henri de Tonti, who 
liad proved his right arm in many undertakings. La Salle crossed 
from Lake Michigan into the current of the Illinois and thence into 
the great river itself. As they passed down the Mississippi amid 
Indians, sometimes friendly, sometimes hostile, and for what seemed 



42 DISCOVERIES AND EXPLORATIONS 

an almost endless distance, they went from winter into the budding 
beauties of spring and ili<; ripe richness of summer. 

In triiim[)h they reached the mouth of the river and proclaimed 
the whole vast region a French possession under the name of 
Louisiana ; in triumph they returned to Quebec in the spring of 1683 ; 
in triumph La Salle appeared later on at the French Court. As with 
all these early explorers the fascination of the scene was, however, 
too great and he again sailed from France with a strong expedition 
to find the mouth of the river from the sea and to found a colony 
which should make the country French in fact as well as in name. 
He failed to find the place, landed his men some hundreds of miles 
away and started overland in search of it. In the heart of the fearful 
wilderness of forest, swamp and sluggish streams his men mutinied 
and at their hands died the great explorer. 

But his life had once more proved the venturesome courage of 
his race and had aided the work of Cartier and Champlain, of devoted 
priest and daring voyageur, of fur-trader and reckless young noble, in 
opening to France a possible pathway to power and in unrolling the 
map of a vast continent. 



CHAPTER II 
The Indians of Early Canada 

THE story of the Indian in North America has never been fully 
written. Parkman, in brilliant but restricted pages, has 
described the custom and characteristics of the Iroquois and 
Hurons as they appeared in the days of the famous struggle with the 
French. Many volumes of American history have been produced 
which illustrate and depict the cruelty or treachery of the white man's 
enemy, but do scant justice to the noble qualities which he undoubtedly 
possessed. Historic memories yet linger in a myriad villages 
throughout Canada and the United States, of midnight raids and 
scalping expeditions and savage rites ; while the smoke of blazing 
settlements and the cry of tortured prisoners echo down the aisles of 
time and still shadow with gloom and bitterness the pen of the most 
impartial writer. Especially has this been the case in British America, 
where the prolonged conflict of the Iroquois and French, and the mar- 
vellous heroism of pioneer priests and missionaries have stirred into 
ready sympathy the racial sentiment of every student and speaker. 

A CHARACTER OF SINGULAR COMPLEXITY 

Yet there was much to admire and respect in these savage pos- 
sessors of the primeval wilderness of America, and of all the aborig- 
inal races the Indians* appear as at once the most picturesque and 
the most peculiar. 

The life of the red man was one of contrasts, his character one 
of singular complexity. Cruelty towards his foe was combined with 
stoical indifference to torture or pain when his own turn came. 

*So called from the belief of Columbus that the natives of San Salvador were people akin to those of thii East 
Indies. 

43 



44 THE INDIANS OF EARLY CANADA 

Treachery in war was a matter of course, yet his faithfulness to 
friends was a quality whose strength even a Christian civilization 
might find reasons to emulate. His personal pride was at times so 
great as to become an insane egotism, yet at other moments his 
humility stooped to the lowest depths of self-abasement. His self- 
restraint rose to the heights of an almost heroic self-repression and 
then disappeared at sudden intervals in bursts of unbridled and 
utterly savage rage. 

He was at once cold and hard and unrelenting in action and 
passionate and revengeful in disposition. He was ignorant and super- 
stitious by nature in an extreme degree, yet keen and quick of thought 
beyond modern parallel. He treated his women as do all savage peo- 
ples, and considered himself far superior to the necessities of labour 
or servitude. For him were reserved the lordly occupations of the 
chase, the spectacular glories of war, the physical victories of self-tor- 
ture in youthful days and of privations in the wilderness, or upon the 
w-arpath, in the days of manhood. Yet he was moral in the highest 
degree and was never guilty of those weaker and meaner vices which 
stamped and destroyed the character of the ancient Roman and have 
left their deep impress upon modern France and the greater cities of our 
own civilization. 

SLEEPLESS SUSPICION OF OTHERS 

Love of liberty in its wild primeval form the Indian possessed, to an 
extent which made him contemptuous of all arbitrary rule or personal 
control, and affected not a little his relation to the incoming tide of 
white men. Sleepless suspicion of others formed a natural part of his 
surroundings of war and treachery and solitude. Like the Italian he 
preferred to send a secret blow or despatch the shaft of an ambushed 
arrow, to open fighting or public revenge ; while the triumph of hold- 
ing an enemy's scalp at his belt was to him what the golden spurs of 
knighthood have been to many a Christian warrior of old, or the 



THE IXniAXS OF EARLY CANADA 45 

thanks of Parliament and honours from the Crown are to the British 
soldier of to-day. Like the Spaniard he was dark and sinister in his 
punishments and retaliations. Like nearly all savage races his war- 
fare was one of sudden and secret surprise, ruthless and ready slaugh- 
ter. Like the nations of the- whites, his tribes also warred continually 
against each other. 

Looking back now upon the vast panorama of forest and prairie, 
lake and river over which the Indian wandered upon foot or glided 
in his birch-bark canoe ; bearing in mind the stern hardships of the 
winter season and the wild happy freedom of the summer time ; 
remembering the absence of all high tradition, spiritual influence or 
intellectual knowledge ; one cannot but be impressed by the character 
and conditions of the people who first faced the fire-sticks of Cham- 
plain, the more fatal fire-water of the French trader, and the fierce 
zeal of the Jesuit missionary. A native of the wilds, a product of 
primeval conditions, the Indian believed in the right and liberty to 
roam at will over his wide realm of wilderness and water. Just as 
nature had made him a noble animal, with instincts which at times 
raised him to a high level of character and achievement ; so, also, it 
filled him at first with simple admiration of the stranger who came 
with such attractive gifts, such wonderful weapons and such curious 
customs. After some experience of the white man's initial follies of 
policy and action, the instincts of nature, however, changed his confi- 
dence into permanent distrust — and this in the case of the American 
savage meant a more or less sleepless hostility. 

When the earlier discoverers and explorers found their way into 
the wilds of Canada they came into contact and then collision with 
various Indian tribes or nations. The great family of the Algon- 
quins extended right up through the middle of the continent and con- 
stituted the central race of the French possessions — reaching also in 
scattered masses from the Atlantic to Lake Winnipeg and from the 



46 THE INDIANS OF EARLY CANADA 

Carolinas to Hudson's Bay. These were the Indians whom Cartier 
encountered on the banks of the St. Lawrence, Penn in the forests of 
the Keystone State, Raleigh upon the coast of Virginia, and Jesuits 
and fur-traders in the Valley of the Ohio and on the shores of Lake 
Superior. 

Of these people were the Delawares and the Shawnees. The 
latter were a strange, wandering tribe whose location it is difficult to 
fix, but who are known to have more than once come into conflict 
with the French. They eventually settled on Canadian soil and in a 
later century played a brief, but important part, under the great 
Tecumseh. The former were at one time conquered by the more 
famous Iroquois and compelled to bear the opprobrious Indian name 
of women ; but in one of the French and English wars they recovered at 
once their courage and their reputation. Other branches dwelt along 
the Canadian shores of the Atlantic and north and east of Lakes Michi- 
gan and Huron. These latter tribes included the Ojibbiways, Potta- 
watamies and Ottawas, and at one time formed a loose and fluctuat- 
ing alliance for the purpose of opposing the course of Iroquois con- 
quest. In this region also were the Sacs, the Foxes and other smaller 
divisions of the Algonquin race. The Nova Scotian off-shoots have 
since been called Mic-macs. those of western New Brunswick were 
named Etchemins, while the Montagnais of Quebec and the Xipis- 
sines of the far North shared the same ancestral tree. 

THE IROQUOIS INDIANS 

But the great race of American history was the Iroquois which 
stretched across what afterwards became known as the State of New 
York and made for itself a name of terror upon the shores of the 
Great Lakes and far down the Atlantic coast. The Iroquois com- 
prised in themselves both the best and the worst traits of savage 
nature as developed by the solitudes of North America. Intense in 
their pride, lustful in their desire for conquest, savage in their 



THE INDIANS OF EARLY CANADA 47 

cruelties, they were also able in organizing power, strong in a sort of 
barbaric intellectual strength, constant alike in friendship and hatred, 
energetic beyond all comparison. Traditions which have a force 
almost equal to historic fact record the birth of their power in the 
fifteenth century under the leadership, and by the statecraft, of a chief 
named Hiawatha. 

He it was, who — according to the translation of Indian wampum 
records by the late Dr. Horatio Hale — conceived the plan of a 
vast native confederation which should turn the mind of the Indian 
from fighting to the paths of peace and contentment. He it was, who 
devised the famous Iroquois system of separate nations controlling 
their own local affairs but lodsfinof aeneral interests in the hands of a 
common Council of all the nations, capable of indefinite expansion in 
the number of tribes included and a weapon, therefore, of enormous 
power in the hands of an able man. Into the proposed League 
Hiawatha eventually drew the Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Cayugas, 
the Senecas and the Onondagas. Writing toward the end of the 
eighteenth century, and amid.influences of surrounding hatred and 
hostility which made any kind of fair play to the Indian difficult, the 
Hon. Cadwallader Golden — a well known New York historian — says 
of the Iroquois organization and polity as it appeared in his day, that: 

" Each of these nations is an absolute republic in itself. The authority of the 
rulers is gained by, and consists wholly in the opinion the rest of the nation have of 
their wisdom and integrity. Honour and esteem are their principal rewards as shame 
and being despised are their punishments. Their great men, both sachems and cap- 
tains, are generally poorer than the common people for they affect to give away and 
distribute all the presents and plunder they get in their treaties or in war. There is 
not a man in the Ministry (Council) of the Five Nations who has gained his office 
otherwise than by merit, and there is not the least salary, or any sort of profit annexed 
to any office to tempt the covetous or sordid. ' ' 

The bitter enemies, and eventual victims, of the Iroquois were 
the Huron tribes of the regions bordering on Georgian Bay and In 



48 THE INDIANS OF EARLY CANADA 

the vicinity of Lake Simcoe. They were variously recorded in his- 
tory or tradition as numbering from ten to twenty thousand souls and 
were certainly of a higher type than other savage races of their time. 
In man\- respects the Huron and Iroquois were alike and in fact were 
related in the tribal sense. The nature of their dwelling-houses, their 
stockaded villages and cultivated lands, their habits of permanent set- 
tlement, were very similar; as were many of their manners, customs 
and superstitions. From 1609, for nearly eighty years, they remained 
deadly rivals and then the weaker disappeared from view. Mean- 
while, however, many pages of history had to be written in deeds of 
struggle and slaughter before that time came, although the steady 
progress of the Iroquois is always noticeable. 

The Neutral Nation, living along the north shore of Lake Erie 
and striving for a while to remain friends with both the rival tribes ; 
the Andastes, dwelling in fortified villages in the far valley of the 
Susquehanna ; the Eries, living in the vicinity of the lake which 
bears their name ; were all of kin to the Iroquois and were all con- 
quered and practically destroyed by that ambitious federation of sav- 
ages. Then came the conquest of the Delawares, or Lenapes, and 
the expulsion of the Ottawas from the vicinity of the great river 
which now runs past the capital of Canada. Fortunately for the 
future of the white people, though unfortunately for a certain bar- 
baric civilization which might in time have been evolved, the Five 
Nations had forgotten the teachings of Hiawatha and, while sensible 
of the benefits which came from their own union, did not grasp the 
ideal which might have extended that union until it included all the 
Indian tribes and evolved a force which might have swept the French 
into the St. Lawrence. A glimmer of this idea was apparent in the 
admission of the Tuscaroras when final success had become impos- 
sible ; a despairing perception of it came fifty years latter to a natural 



THE INDIANS OF EARL Y CANADA 49 

genius in the person of Pontiac as he organized the league of Indian 
tribes which resulted in a prolonged and bloody struggle. 

As it was, however, the Iroquois in their fighting strength and 
influence present a striking picture upon the page of history, and it 
was well, indeed, that their constructive force did not equal their 
destructive power. Yet they could never have numbered more than 
four thousand warriors, all told. Swift and silent movement from 
place to place, perfect familiarity with every stick and stone, every 
sign and symbol, every sense and sound of forest life, enabled them 
to use their small numbers with a weight out of all apparent propor- 
tion. But it was really the same with all the savage races of North 
America, though in differing degrees. Garneau, in his History of ■ 
French Canada, estimates the Algonquin population when the French 
first came into contact with them at 90,000, the Hurons and Iroquois 
together at about 17,000, the Mobiles of the far south at 30,000 and 
the Cherokees of what is now the centre of the United States, at 
12,000. His total is 180,000 for the greater part of the continent, 
and, in view of the privations undergone in winter time and the con- 
stant conditions of warfare involved, it is probable that this estimate 
is fairly correct. The statements and suppositions of travelers such 
as Cartier, Jolliete, Marquette, De la Jonquiere, and others, help also 
to indicate the probability of his figures. 



THE INDIANS PAST AND PRESENT 



So far as can now be judged the original Indian — the aborigine 
of pre-Cartier days — was not naturally inclined to hostility toward the 
new comers and was, in fact, more disposed to hospitality. He had 
much of curiosity in his character as well as of superstition, and both 
qualities might have been utilized in the direction of peace and edu- 
cative influences. Hakluyt, in his account of Cartier's first visit to 
Hochelaga, lays great stress upon the bountiful generosity of the 
natives. Turnbull, in his work upon Connecticut, pays them an 



50 THE INDIANS OF EARL Y CANADA 

unusual American tribute and says the natives practically saved the 
lives of the first settlers by their generosity in supplying corn and 
other food. Similar experiences have been recorded by others, and 
the response which history stamps upon the white man is found in 
such kidnapping episodes as have already been described, in the 
aggressive policy of Champlain, in the harshness of the New England 
settlers, in the cruelties of the Spaniards to the south, in the inde- 
scribable horrors of the Cortez and Pizarro campaigns. 

The character of the Indian, in days when the whole wild conti- 
nent was his, differs so greatly from the emasculated product of 
modern civilization that no judgment of former conditions can be 
based upon present appearances. Though the matter of origin has 
never been settled there were similarities which stamped the savages 
of America as possible descendants of migrating Tartars from the 
steppes of Central Asia. They were, as a rule, tall and slender and 
agile in form, with faces bronzed by sun and wind and rain. Their 
expression was stern and sombre, seldom or never marked by a smile. 
Their heads had high cheek bones, small, sunken and keenly flashing 
eyes, narrow foreheads, thick lips, somewhat flat noses and coarse hair. 
The senses of sight and sound and smell and feeling were developed into 
a sort of forest instinct which seemed almost supernatural to the early- 
white settlers and finds such vivid expression in Fenimore Cooper's bril- 
liant romances. Their costume of deer-skin and moccasins, their neck- 
laces of wampum and shells, their ornaments of feathers, claws or scalps, 
their fondness for daubing the body and face with vermillion paint, 
their use of the arrow, the tomahawk and the scalping-knife, soon 
became terribly familiar to the ring of white man who, century by cent- 
ury, slowly drove in and dispossessed these earlier owners of the soil 
— as it is not improbable they had driven the still more ancient race 
whose mounds and buried cities and curious remains still excite the 
wonder of the archaeologist, from the far north to the farthest south. 



THE INDIANS OF EARLY CANADA 5I 

Hunting, or fishing, was the occupation of these Arabs of 
the American wilderness, fighting their continual pastime. Hence, 
permanent dwelling-places were not usual, except among the Hurons 
and Iroquois, and their life was one of ceaseless wandering. Their 
religion was always of a peculiarly mixed and doubtful quality. Cham- 
plain has left on record the statement that the Mic-macs of Acadie 
had neither devotional ideas nor superstitious ceremonies. Other 
tribes upon the St. Lawrence assured him that each man had his own 
god whom he worshipped in secret silence. They seem, however, to 
have usually worshipped something, whether the spirit of good, the 
spirit of evil, the spirit of storm, the god of war, the spirit of the 
mountains, or a spirit of the waters. 

They peopled all the surrounding air with friendly or hostile 
spirits and created amongst themselves those powerful manipulators 
of superstition — the medicine men — to control the demons of storm 
and famine and disease and death which a vivid imagination had 
called into existence. To these priests of a peculiar and varied faith 
they also confined the care of the sick and there is little doubt that 
experience and necessity had evolved many a simple yet effective 
remedy by the time the white man appeared on the scene. Great 
faith was placed in dreams, and oratory was almost as important a 
factor in success as bravery. The orations that have come down to 
us are in many cases models of conciseness, brevity and forcefulness, 
not unmixed at times with a touch of pathos. In morals the Indian 
was far superior to most other savage races. He had one wife and, 
though she was expected to do most of the work and to bear a full 
share in hardship and suffering, he did not wantonly ill-treat her and 
was usually faithful to her as she was to him. With the appearance 
of the white settlers this latter condition unfortunatelv chaneed. 
though, in all the wars which followed, the captured white woman 
was safe from anything worse than the scalping-knife. Nor, in 



52 TJIK IXDIANS OF EAKLY CAS. ID A 

any instances of captivity recorded, do women and children appear 
to have been subject to torture at the hands of their captors. 

The customs and character of the American aborigine turned, 
mainly, however, upon war. A struggle between two rival tribes or 
nations could be brought on by the most trivial cause, or by almost 
any ambitious or relentless individual. When determined upon, it 
became the source of almost uncontrollable joy, of wild dances, of 
eloquent harangues, of multitudinous prayers and sacrifices, of feasts 
and endless bravado and boasting. Then followed a period of 
absolute silence and secret preparation, departure in the night-time 
and a long, patient waiting by squaws and old braves and young boys, 
for the return. Perhaps the expedition never came back, but if it 
did so, with scalps and prisoners, the welcoming din of shouts and 
shrieks and tom-toms presented a perfect pandemonium of sound. 
Then followed the frightful torture of the captives, controlled some- 
what by degree or rank, but always borne with a stoical endurance 
and pride. Such were the savages whom Champlain encountered 
and the French fought during over a hundred years of intermittent 
warfare. 

Such, also, were the savages who, in modified or varied charac- 
teristics, extended from Lake Superior through the far west and 
north to the Pacific Ocean and about whom much less is known. 
They were great hunters and in time became most expert horsemen. 
The Dacotahs, or Sioux, were a nation of allies, not unlike the 
Iroquois in many respects, and covering the southern region of Mani- 
toba and Assiniboia. With them and around them were the Crees . 
and Assiniboines, while to the north were the Chippewayans and 
around Hudson's Bay and the northern lakes were scattered the 
Chippewas. With the exception of the Sioux these tribes were not 
apparently as war-like as those in the more central part of the conti- 
nent and, when settlement came, they showed a much more docile 



THE IXDIANS OF EARLY CANADA 5^ 

disposition, mixino^ in years to come with the hunters and trappers to 
an extent which is fully illustrated by the Half-breed population of 1 870 
and I goo. In British Columbia and the far north the Indians were 
a decidedly inferior race to those of other parts of the continent — a 
condition probably due to the milder climate and to the lack of 
necessity for severe exertion in order to obtain food. Under pioneer 
white auspices they became greatly degraded though subject, in later 
days, to Christianizing influences. The Flatheads, the Haidas, the 
Mitkas, and the now almost extinct Chinooks, comprised the chief 
divisions and the most of these were akin to the Chippewayans of 
the plains of the east. 

THE IROQUOIS AND THE FRENCH 

Meanwhile, the French settlers scattered aloncr the banks of the 
St. Lawrence, in the seventeenth century, knew nothing of these far 
away tribes who hunted the buffalo on the boundless prairies, or 
erected their tepees upon the banks of some great salmon stream on 
the Pacific slope of the unknown Rockies. The Frenchmen had 
quite enough to face in the savages more immediately surrounding 
them and the deeds of heroism, on both sides of the desultory warfare 
which followed the death of Champlain, constitute a most impressive 
picture. Montreal was founded in 1642 by Le Royer de la Dauver- 
siere and Jean Jacques Olier, and was governed in its earlier days by 
the iron hand and courage of De Maisonneuve. It formed one more 
object of attack to the Iroquois who had, of late, been gaining 
strength and confidence and were now supplied with fire-arms by grace 
of the Dutch traders at Fort Orange. The annals of the twenty years 
which followed make an epic poem in the endurance, the courage, the 
constancy, of the little white population of Ville Marie — as Montreal 
was called — and of the other fortified settlements of New France. 

Up and down the rivers floated the crowded canoes of a merci- 
less enemy, every path through the forest seemed to be a ready road 



^^ THE INDIANS OF EARL Y CANADA 

to Iroquois capture and lorlurc, every tree in the wilderness to be an 
Indian warrior. The savages lurked in the most unexpected places; 
hung silc^nlly ui)on the outskirts of \'illc Marie or Quebec ; waited 
with sleepless patience for the appearance of some straggling white 
man or solitary woman from the convent walls. Only the strongest 
of armed parties could pass east or west, only the firmest of fortified 
walls were safe when the haunting war-whoop of the enemy was heard. 
The fur trade was dead and, in 1649, came the death of the Huron 
nation, the destruction of the Jesuit missions, and the greatest day of 
Iroquois power. Their war parties swept over the Huron villages 
like a Dakotan tornado and only a scattered remnant of the race 
lived to reach the walls of Quebec, or \'ille Alarle, and to tell the tale 
of slaughtered converts and martyred missionaries. 

These years of agony came to a climax during the decade follow- 
ing 1650. The stone walls of the convents were no longer a sufficient 
protection and the nuns fled to the cities for protection. Around 
Quebec and Montreal the Indians scalped and slaughtered with 
apparent immunity. Little or no help came from France and then a 
malignant fever suddenly broke out amongst the people. Not 
all the light-heartedness of the French race could bear up against this 
combination of disasters, this cloud of destruction which hung low 
over the land. Those who could fled away to France, those who 
could not seemed to loose their hold upon hope. Strange portents 
were seen in the skies. D'Argenson, the Governor, shrinking from 
misery around him which he was unable to remedy, demanded his 
recall and at last, in 1660, came the news that the Iroquois had 
determined upon one general and concentrated attack which should 
crush the white man and make the power of the great Iroquois nation 
finally supreme. Hundreds gathered below Montreal, hundreds more 
gathered upon the Ottawa, and news came that the greatest war party 
in savage history was about to sweep down upon devoted Villa Marie. 



THE INDIANS OF EARL V CANADA 55 

At this crisis a deed was performed which has justly been called 
the Thermopylse of Canada and which merits a place amongst the 
finest records of sacrificial courage. Daulac des Ormeoux, a young 
French nobleman, who had sought the new world for adventure and 
reputation and was now in command of the little garrison at Ville 
Marie, volunteered to lead a small party of young men down the 
Ottawa and to break the force of the Iroquois wave before It reached 
the terrified and disheartened defenders of the town. Calllne for 
volunteers, he obtained the aid of sixteen youthful heroes and after- 
wards of some friendly Hurons — who, however, deserted him when 
the critical time came. 

HEROISM OF DAULAC 

Making their wills, receiving the sacrament of their Church, and 
the mournful farewells which can be better Imagined than described, 
the gallant little band passed up the St. Lawrence, crossed the Lake 
of the Two Mountains and took up their station in an abandoned enclo- 
sure formed of tree trunks by some Algonquin war-party of a preceding 
year. Here they made their stand — seventeen white men, one Algon- 
quin chief and five gallant Hurons — and here, for days, they defended 
themselves against hundreds of picked Iroquois warriors who stormed 
around their feeble shelter without Intermission and with every 
device of experienced forest warfare. Exhausted with fatigue, fam- 
ished for food and sleep, wounded and gasping and dying, the little 
band fought on. Slowly their numbers diminished but steadily also 
the dead bodies of the enemy piled up outside the palisades until 
the walls of wooden stakes had almost ceased to be a shelter. 
Then, at last, when all the defenders were dead but five, and they 
helpless from Innumerable wounds, the greatly re-Inforced army of 
the enemv won admission to the enclosure. Four of the survivlnsf 
heroes died at once ; only one was found sufficiently alive to make 
torture worth the while. 



56 THE IXDI.IX.S OF EARLY CASADA 

The lesson was enough. To the bravery of the Iroquois nothing 
appealed so greatly as courage and such courage as this revived all 
their old-time respect for the white man — a feeling which had 
diminished in proportion as the rule of religious Orders had prevented 
the expression of French war-like spirit and the absence of French 
soldiers had prevented aggressive action. If seventeen Frenchmen, 
they argued, could keep 700 picked warriors at bay for days and kill 
many of their best men, what would the population of Ville Marie not 
be able to do ? The great expedition withdrew to its lodges and for 
a time there was rest in the worn and wearied settlements. Six years 
later, in the winter of 1666, De Courcelles, the bold but rash noble- 
man who now governed the Colony, undertook to lead an expedition 
to the banks of the distant Hudson for the purpose of chastising the 
Mohawks — perhaps the bravest of all the Five Nations. He started 
out with 300 men and 200 Indian allies. He returned without finding 
the enemy, after a journey of severe privation and labour and with the 
loss of sixty men from Indians who had hung upon his rear. In the 
autumn a second expedition was more successful, the villages of the 
Mohawks were destroyed and their stores of food carried away or 
burned. These retaliatory expeditions were not only creditable to 
French bravery and endurance but, owing to the immense regions 
traversed, made the Iroquois feel an increasing respect for the long 
arm of his now traditionary enemy. 

During the next eighty years the history of the Indians, so far 
as New France is concerned, was one of attack and counter-attack, of 
plot and counter-plot. Always and everywhere the Iroquois had been 
the deadly enemies of the Frenchmen, and now, with savage though 
very natural sense, they became also the more and more frequent 
allies of the English. To hold the balance of power between the two 
great rivals, to enable the one to kill off the other, and to contribute 
in the promotion of the latter process, was to the savage statesmen a 



THE INDIANS OF EARLY CANADA 59 

most congenial task. The French had their allies also, in various 
Alofonquin tribes and in a scattered remnant of the Hurons. 



to^ 



And so the struggle went on. Governor Denonville, in 1687, 
with two or three thousand troops invaded the country of the Senecas 
and committed whatever ravages were possible. His expedition was 
, rendered memorable by an act of treachery which was not only bad 
in principle and character but disastrous in policy. A number of 
chiefs were invited to a conference and to smoke the pipe ,of peace at 
Fort Frontenac — an advanced port on the St. Lawrence. They 
came, were surprised, captured and sent to France to meet a fate 
which must have been one of slow and sustained agony as slaves in 
the King's galleys. The villages of the tribes were burned, their 
cattle and swine and stores of corn destroyed, and the people merci- 
lessly harried until scattered far and wide and their strength shattered 
in a way from which they never recovered. 

It was a military triumph, but the result was an instant combin- 
ation of all the Iroquois nations in a swift and savage onslaught upon 
New France. In small detachments they glided like shadows of 
revenge upon the settlers, and settlements and smoking ruins, or the 
remains of tortured victims, stamped keen memories of pain over a 
wide area of the Colony. So swift and sure was the vengeance of 
the Indians, so unable was he to adequately meet it, that Denonville 
felt impelled to sue for peace. Negotiations were commenced but 
the peace was killed by one of the most" clever and unscrupulous 
incidents in the annals of this savage warfare. Kondiaronk, or " The 
Rat," was a chief of the small tribe of Hurons at distant Michili- 
mackinac which had helped Denonville in his Seneca raid. He 
knew that no peace was possible unless his tribal remnant were given 
up to Iroquois vengeance through the removal of French protection, 
and he determined to act promptly in order to avert such a possibility. 
Lying in wait for the Iroquois envoys, as they were on the way to 



6o THE INDIANS OF EARLY CANADA 

Montreal to conclude the treaty, Kondiaronk fell upon them, killed 
one and captured the rest — in the name of Denonville. Then, when 
told that they were envoys on a peace mission, he pretended intense 
disgust at the treachery of Denonville and sent them away loaded 
with gifts and filled with wrath at this second evidence of what they 
believed to be French duplicity. In the words of the astute Huron 
" the Peace was killed" indeed and, indirectly, Denonville's original 
treachery had met a just and fitting reward. 

THE LACHINE MASSACRE 

Vengeance to the Iroquois mind was now imperative and the 
chiefs of the Five Nations resolved it should be a memorable one. 
Months of French suspense and Indian silence followed and then the 
blow fell. On the night of August 4th, 16S9, fifteen hundred savages 
swept into and around the village of Lachine, at the upper end of 
Montreal Island, and the wild storm which nature sent at the same 
time failed to silence the screeches of the Indians and the screams of 
their victims. The writer of to-day has to draw a veil over the 
horrors, the tortures, the slaughter of that niglit. Suffice it to say 
that the hearts of the French soldiers in Montreal were turned to 
water in their breasts, and that New France seemed stricken with a 
helpless horror. Then, just in time for the revival of French prestige 
and the safety of French settlers everywhere, there came back the 
greatest of early French Governors, the wise and gallant, though 
merciless, De Frontenac. 

He decided to strike at the Iroquois through the English. 
Three expeditions were secretly arranged from Quebec, Three Rivers, 
and Montreal and, as secretly, they marched upon Schenectadyin New 
York, Salmon Falls in Maine and another point. Friendly Indians 
were largely employed in these successful expeditions and Indian 
methods of slaughter were followed. For a time afterwards the 
Iroquois were held in order by these successes against their English 



THE INDIANS OF EARLY CANADA 61 

allies and by the evidences of courage and statecraft in Frontenac 
which they had been quick to discover and appreciate during his pre- 
ceding Government. In 1692 occurred one of those incidents which 
shed a ray of light athwart a gloomy record of bloodshed and bar- 
barism. It was a bright summer day at the little Fort of Vercheres 
and its only occupants were Madeleine, the Seigneur's daughter (a girl 
of fourteen years), two soldiers, two boys and some women. The 
time was supposed to be one of peace and the men were away at 
work in the fields. Suddenly a large party of Indians appeared on 
the scene. The gates were shut and the terrified inmates calmed by 
the little maiden. She at once took command, cannon were shotted 
and fired by her orders, and the tiny garrison placed so as to continue 
their use to best advantage. For a week the heroine of Vercheres — 
as history justly terms her — held the place with increasing vigilance 
against repeated Iroquois attacks, and until the inmates were at last 
saved by the appearance of French soldiers. 

The year after this, Frontenac led a not very successful expedi- 
tion against the Mohawks and, in 1696, though now old and some- 
what feeble, he was carried in an arm-chair through the vast wilder- 
ness of water and forest at the head of twenty-two hundred men to 
another attack on this redoubtable tribe. The Iroquois burned their 
towns and some were burned for them, while much food was destroyed 
and famine in the future made inevitable. But little else was done 
except the capture of some chiefs who were taken back as hostages. 
The Iroquois had now for nearly twenty years been in formal alliance 
with the English at New York, and under the protection of the Eng- 
lish Government. Year by year, the naturally war-like spirit of all 
the tribes had been fanned by the European rivals until their merci- 
less disposition and indifference to death had flamed up in the massacre 
of Lachine, on the one side, and that of Schenectady on the other. 
Yet they were cunning enough not to permit the absolute destruction 



62 THE IXDIANS OF EARLY CAS ADA 

of the French. They were shrewd enough to know that if the Eng- 
lish were entirely triumphant with, or without, their aid the result 
would be equally dangerous to their own power. In 1685, during La 
Barre's incapable rule, and as a result of his foolish strategy, they at 
one time had the French colonies at the mercy of a united attack. 
Yet they seem to have deliberately refrained. Again, during the , 
European War of the Spanish Succession the English and Indian 
allies appeared once more to have the game in their hands when the 
Iroquois held back at a vital moment, and failure followed. 

TllK ENGLISH COLONISTS AND THE INDIAN 

Thus the struggle went on and spread its complex course over 
the greater part of the continent. In the history of Canada the 
Indians continued to take an important but very varied part up to 
the War of 181 2. From the days of Frontenac they fought on 
one side or the other, on behalf of the English or the French. 
Broadly speaking the Iroquois stood by the former through thick and 
thin, while the bulk of the other tribes supported the authorities at 
Quebec. In Washington's expedition against Fort Duquesne, in 
Braddock's defeat and in Johnson's attack upon Crown Point, in the 
campaign of Montcalm against Fort William Henry, they took an 
important and characteristic part. In Acadie, during the mutations 
of French and English struggle, they were never numerous enough 
to hold any considerable place as combatants, but in cutting ofT 
isolated settlers from time to time v.-ere quite sufficiently successful. 
During the middle of the eighteenth century, when Halifax had just 
been founded and the English were trying to conciliate the French 
inhabitants, the Mic-macs of Nova Scotia — as Acadie was now 
called — fell largely under the malignant influence of a priest named 
Le Loutre. He was a merciless and tireless supporter of the French 
rtgime at Quebec, honest with the flame of a fierce and cruel patriotism, 
but devoid of any real spirit of Christianity and honour. Under his 



THE INDIANS OF EARLY CANADA 63 

control the Mic-macs became a veritable thorn in the side of the Eng- 
lish, a source of constant outrage and murder. Some other tribes 
stood by the latter, reprisals naturally followed and, for years before 
the final fall of Quebec, the shameful spectacle was seen of Indians 
struggling for scalps in order to obtain a French or English bounty. 

With the victory of Wolfe came cessation in the strife of cen- 
turies between the European rivals but with it, also, came a last 
despairing Indian effort to hold their own against the onward sweep 
of English population and power. Pontiac, Chief of the Ottawas, 
had for some years before the signing of the Treaty of Paris been 
consolidating and increasing his strength. He had steadily stretched 
his influence over the Ottigamies, the Huron remnant which had for 
half a century been slowly growing in numbers, the Sacs, Pottawat- 
tamies, Ojibbiways, Wyandottes and other tribal divisions of the 
Canadian region. He had spread the spell of his personality down 
the centre of the continent to the far frontiers of Virginia and over 
the fiery Delawares and Shawanees. He had even detached the 
Senecas from their traditional and close alliance with the Five 
Nations, or Iroquois. His subtlety of insight enabled him to see 
clearly that, with the final success of the English, the power of the 
Indian had practically passed. His eloquence and force of character 
enabled him to bind the tribes together in a proposed onslaught upon 
the advancing white man. 

Circumstances played into his hands and he was able to point 
out that no more appeals were made to Indian assistance and Indian 
pride ; that no more gifts were bestowed upon their people or courte- 
sies showered upon their envoys. Policy no longer made their alliance 
necessary, while recollections of half a century of barbarous warfare 
made the Colonial attitude one of contempt and natural aversion. 
Hence his scheme to scourge the English pale-faces into the sea before 
his own people should be swept away into the unknown west by the 



64 THE INDIAXS OF EARL Y CANADA 

increasing numbers of their enemy. Encouraged secretly by French 
fur-traders, who told him that help was coming from France, and by 
New Orleans' merchants who felt the competition of the English, he 
laid his plans and, in May 1763, the whole western frontier was 
a blaze of savage warfare. Detroit w^as closely besieged, after the 
failure of an attempt to surprise it, a detachment of troops from 
Niagara was cut to pieces, Sandusky, Michilimackinac and other 
places were taken and destroyed, while the frontiers of Pennsylvania, 
Maryland, and Virginia flamed with the light of burning villages and 
echoed to the cries of slaughtered settlers. Campaigns against the 
Indians followed under Colonels Bouquet and Bradstreet with vary- 
ing success, and the war dragged on until 1 766, when Sir William 
Johnson finally forced the submission of Pontiac. This ended the 
struggle, and a year later the really great leader of his people was 
killed in some private broil. 

THEYENDANEGEA AND TECUMSEII 

In the years which followed, Sir William Johnson, as English 
Superintendent of Indian Affairs in the Colonies, obtained a 
a vast influence over the savages and especially over the Iroquois of 
New York. When the Revolution broke out he espoused the Royal 
cause and faithfully did the Indians join in fighting for it under the 
leadership of Theyendanegea, — Captain Joseph Brant. This chief- 
tain was another leader of the type of Pontiac, but without his sav- 
agery of temperament, and with some of the trained qualities of 
civilization. Able, honourable and courageous, he rendered great 
service against the Continental forces, ^\'hcn the end came he led 
the bulk of the Iroquois Loyalists from their historic homes and 
comfortable farms to the banks of the Thames in Upper Canada, and 
there the)' were supplied with land grants by the King, and settled 
down to a life which was unbroken by war or strife until the days of 
1 81 2. Then, once more, they took up arms under Tecumseh, and 



THE INDIANS OF EARLY CANADA 65 

revived the old glories of their race without the cruelties and savage- 
ries which had cast so black a shadow over its sombre history. 

Both in the years of the Revolution and in the War of 1812 a 
few Indians fought with the Americans ;* but they were never numer- 
ous despite the bounties offered by Congress. Their aid was publicly 
sought by Montgomery during his invasion of Canada, and Congress 
passed a Resolution approving the project to raise 2000 Indians for 
this particular service. They do not seem, however, to have worked 
well with the Americans at any time, and to have, indeed, retained 
their rancour against this branch of the palefaces long after the 
Iroquois had buried the hatchet and discarded their hatred against 
the French. 

The Indian was a natural monarchist, a born believer in aristoc- 
racy, and it is probable that the English system, as it evolved to the 
north of the Great Lakes, was far more suited to his tastes and 
inclinations than the democracy of the new Republic. He saw and 
felt the forms of British institutions, liked the principle of loyalty to 
a great King or Chief, and also admired, as time went on, the strength 
of British love for law and order and for justice between different 
races. His day of power had gone, it is true, but he all the more 
appreciated kindness and just treatment, and, during the century 
which followed, Canada has no prouder or more satisfactory page in 
her history than the treatment of her Indian wards and their immu- 
nity from strife and bloodshed and corrupt government. 



* See Washington's Address to Congress on April 19th, 1776. 



CHAPTER III 
The Jesuit Missions and Pioneer Christianity 

THE extraordinary army of men who belonged in successive 
centuries to the Society of Jesus possess in their annals of 
mingled power and privation, of greatness and meanness, of 
fanaticism and finesse, no more interesting record than that embodied 
in those Jesuit Relations which are so eloquently descriptive of their 
prolonged effort to evangelize the savages of the one-time Canadian 
wilderness. 

PIONEERS OF EMPIRE IX NEW 1-RANCE 

Whatever story may yet leap to light for good or ill in the 
past pages of this great Order, nothing but honour surrounds the 
work of the Jesuit pioneers in British America. Armed with nothing 
but the crucifix and wrapped in a mantle of faith and Christian 
enthusiasm which made them dare everything and fear neither torture, 
nor privation, nor death, they tramped through the lonely aisles of 
the forest, wandered amid swamps and the haunts of wild beasts, 
lived in the smoke-blackened atmosphere of dirty huts, nursed and 
prayed with the ignorant and helpless victims of contagious disease, 
and preached to threatening tribes controlled by the ignorant 
" Medicine men " who saw their supremacy menaced by these new 
doctrines of peace and charity and good-will. 

During the seventeenth century, while their fellow priests, with 
varying degrees of success and failure, of Christian work and secular 
negotiation, were extending the power of the Church of Rome in 
India and the Moluccas, in China and Japan, in Brazil and Paraguay, 
devoted missionaries of that remarkable ortj-anization were winning 
66 






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MGR. JEAN OCTAVE PLESSIS 
Bishop of Quebec 



MGR. FRANCOIS DE LAVAL 
First Bishop of Quebec 



THE JESUIT MISSIONS AND PIONEER CHRISTIANITY 69 

over to Christianitv the Huron Indians in what is now the Province 
of Ontario. In 1626, Jean de Brebeuf founded a mission on the 
forest-clad shores of the Georgian Bay. In 1641 Fathers Jogues and 
Raymbault preached to great Indian audiences beside the rapids of 
the Sault Ste Marie as that Httle river rushes to connect the great 
waters of Superior and Huron. Everywhere throughout a still wider 
region of forest and wilderness these and other pioneers of religion 
preached and suffered and struggled with the forces of nature, and of 
native barbarism, or died for the faith that was in them. 

WONDERFUL COURAGE AND FAITH 

With breviary and crucifix they wandered afar from even the 
ultimately converted Huronsand the implacable Iroquois. From the 
wave-beaten shores of Nova Scotia to the prairies of the unknown 
west, from the region of Hudson's Bay to the mouth of the Mississippi, 
they passed in a succession of black-robed figures. Paddling in bark- 
canoes upon rivers and lakes of unexplored size and character ; toiling 
over rwg^&A portages or through forests without seeming end or limit; 
sleeping on rocks and moss, or taking refuge from the bitter cold of 
winter In the still more unpleasant smoke and dirt of an Indian 
wigwam ; dependent for subsistence upon the scarce quality of savage 
charity or the acorns and nuts and wild growth of the forest ; they 
persevered In their mission " for the glory of God," for the advance- 
ment of their Order and of New France, until, as Bancroft, the 
American historian, puts It, " not a cape was turned, not a river was 
entered but a Jesuit led the way." 

Meanwhile, in the more limited sphere within which rested the 
wigwams of the Hurons and around which beat the ever-present rage 
of their inexorable enemies, the Iroquois, success came to the 
missionaries In the way which they loved best. 

What mattered It to them In the preliminary effort to tame the 
Huron nature, or in the later conflicts with the hereditary foes of the 



•JO THE JESUIT MfS.S/O.VS A\D PIONEER CHRISTIAXITY 

tribe, if priest after priest dropped from the ranks into the arms of a 
martyred death ? Daniel, Brebeuf, Lallemant, Garnier, Garreau, 
Buteux, Jogues and ChaLanet, laid down their lives after suffering 
tortures beside the reality of which the most vivid imagination would 
pale. Goupil, Brule and Lalande were some of the lay labourers who 
also earned the crown of a violent death ; while the sufferings of 
Chatelaine, Chaumont, Couture and many others, would make a 
record too painful for summarized treatment. The yesiiit Relations, 
written by many of these Jesuit Fathers, in different languages and 
under varied conditions of sufferino- to the authorities in Quebec, or 
at Rome, present a picture rarely if ever equalled in the annals of 
privation and perseverance. 

The tragic story of Father Jogues is one of intense interest. 
Coming from Quebec in 1642 with supplies for the mission, he and 
his companions were captured by the Iroquois on Lake St. Peter. 
The gentle, refined and cultured priest was submitted to ever}- 
indignity and torture that his captors could think of while they 
dragged him in triumph from town to town. His companions did not 
survive the ordeal of suffering or the fiery stake but, eventually, the 
most delicate of them all, with mangled and bleeding body, was 
-allowed to escape into what seemed the certain death of the wintry 
woods. By some miracle of fortune or of Providence he escaped to 
the Dutch at far-away Fort Orange and was thence sent home to 
France. But, despite the hero worship of a Court and memories of 
untold suffering, he took the first vessel in the spring for Xew France 
and this time actually endeavoured to establish a mission amongst his 
Iroquois torturers. The martyr's death came to him in 1644. 
Almost exactly similar was the devotion and self-sacrifice of Father 
Bressani, an Italian Jesuit. Captured as was Jogues, scarred, 
scourged, mangled, burned and otherwise tortured, he lived to see 
hungry dogs feeding off his naked body, and to write the words, " I 



THE JESUIT MISSIONS AND PIONEER CHRISTIANITY 7 r 

could not have believed that a man was so hard to kill."* To the 
General of the Order in Rome to whom this was addressed he added 
the statement that it was written in ink made of gunpowder and 
water, and was soiled because he had only one finger of his right 
hand left entire and could not prevent the blood from his still open 
wounds staining the paper. Yet he lived to be rescued, to be carried 
home to France, and to again return to the scene of his suffering and 
sorrow. 

SUCCESS WITH THE HURONS 

Such a spirit compelled success. In 1634 Fathers Brebeuf and 
Davoust, after a weary and painful journey of nine hundred miles, 
with limbs scarred by rocks, and bodies bitten and bruised and torn 
and worn, reached the Huron settlements, not far from the Lake 
Simcoe of to-day and established the mission for which they had wil- 
lingly endured so much. "Amid it all," wrote Brebeuf, " my soul 
enjoyed a sublime contentment, knowing that all I suffered was for 
God." And it really seemed as if the blood of the martyrs was to be 
the seed of the Church. Gradually the Huron tribes became con- 
verted and the altar which was at first, and for long, raised in the 
aisles of the forest began to find a place within the palisades of the 
native villages. 

The story of this success is one full of tragic incidents crowned 
with the most tragic of all ends. For fifteen years Brebeuf and 
Lallemant, Daniel and other devoted priests, laboured without ceas- 
ing- to convert the savages amongst villages which dotted the fertile 
region between Georgian Bay and Lake Simcoe wherever an opening 
in the dense forest growth allowed a settlement, with its huts and pro- 
tective palisades, to be placed. The priests shared every hardship of 
a life to which custom and tradition had inured the Indian, without 
complaint and with apparent pleasure. Despite dislike and threats and 

* The Rev. Dr. W. H, Withrow in Canada : An Encyctoptsdia of the Country, Volume II., page 444. 



72 THE JESUIT MfSSfO.VS AND PIOXEER CHRIST! AXITY 

insult they would enter the dwelling's of the Huron braves and admin- 
ister the rite of baptism to infants whom they thus believed to be 
changed "from little savages to little angels." Of a thousand such 
ceremonies, performed in 1639, it is stated that all but twenty were 
done in immediate danger of death. Such courage, coupled with 
sympathy in sickness, tenderness to the dying, evident love for the 
children, care for the wounded, inevitably had its effect in tim^. 
Slowly converts came in, gradually superstitious rites were discon- 
tinued, steadily the worn cassock and wasted form of the missionarj' 
came to be an endurable and then a welcome guest. 

The influence of these men grew so great as the years passed 
slowly on as to seem a marvel in the eyes of the modern observer. 
Savage natures were actually changed so as to be unrecognizable. 
Human tenderness was revived and lawless passions restrained ; 
Christian decorations and devotions took the place of wild Pagan 
mummeries; most wonderful of all, the Huron learned to pray for 
his bitter and hereditary enemy, the Iroquois. A transformation 
such as this seems little short of miraculous, and it was natural that 
an already boundless missionary zeal should be strengthened by it — 
if that were possible. Recruits came from France and converted 
Indians swelled the ranks of Christian labour. In almost every 
Huron village a mission was established and. in place of a few fearful, 
doubtful converts meeting and worshipping in the shadow of the 
forest, there were organized services held and even religious structures 
erected at St. Michael, St. Joseph, St. Jean, St. Louis, St. Denys, 
St. Antoine, St. Charles, St. Ignace, Ste. Therese, Ste. Marie and . 
many another place called after some Saint or old-world shrine of 
the faith. 

The last-named was perhaps the most important and was estab- 
lished, in 1640, on the banks of a small stream not far from the present 
town of Penetancruishone. It was a fort as well as a mission and 



THE JESi 'IT J//SS/O.VS .-LVD PIONEER CHRISTIANITY 73 

the outline of the masonry and palisaded walls may still be seen after 
the lapse of two centuries and a half. Within these defences were a 
church, a mission residence, a kitchen, and a refectory. Immediately 
outside of them were a large building for Indian guests, an hospital for 
the sick and a cemetery for the dead. Agriculture was carefully taught 
and earnestly encouraged, while the Fathers not only themselves used 
spade and mattock, but raised fowls, swine and cattle. Prosperity came 
to the villages; comfort and plentiful supplies of food, in winter as well 
as in summer, resulted from the foresight of the missionaries ; the ele- 
ments of a very real and kindly civilization became visible. 

Unfortunately, however, though it must be said naturally, the 
military spirit of the Hurons was undermined in this process. The 
need of food no longer spurred them to the distant hunt and possible 
conflict ; the lust for vengeance no longer moved them to practice 
cruelties and physical austerities which developed activity and deter- 
mination and strength. They grew averse to war, afraid of the 
Iroquois, anxious for peace and, therefore, natural and easy victims 
to the implacable hate of an enemy who knew no mercy and despised 
the qualities which Christianity aimed to cultivate. They were still 
subject to desultory raids from wandering bands of the enemy, and 
many were the scalps taken from unwary Hurons during this decade 
of development. But there had been no combined onslaught and, up 
to 1648, hope without any real confidence was the prevailing feeling 
amongst the villages. In that year, while the Iroquois were haunting 
the shadow of every tree and the fortifications of every white settle- 
ment along the St. Lawrence in search of victims, a party of Huron 
braves from St. Joseph descended the Ottawa and the greater river 
with a large stock of furs for sale to the French. At Three Rivers 
they were attacked but beat their assailants back. 

It was, however, the beginning of the end. An Iroquois band 
had meanwhile swept up the country to St. Joseph, broken down the 

5 



74 THE JESUIT MISSIONS AND PIONEER CHRISTIANITY 

palisades, killed Father Daniel at the altar of his church, taken 700 
prisoners and left the little town a smoking ruin. In the following 
year the mandate went forth that the Huron nation was to be 
destroyed. Twelve hundred warriors entered the rich and populated 
country and left it a desert. The villages were burned, or taken by 
storm and then destroyed. Priests and people, alike, were slaughtered 
or taken prisoners and preserved for a worse fate. The Jesuit 
Relations record a measure of suffering wreaked upon some of the 
Jesuit Fathers which it seems impossible for men to have endured. 
At St. Louis, Brcbeuf and Lallemant, disdaining to fly, stood by the 
warriors of the settlement and were eventually captured. Enraged, 
and yet admiring their courage, the savages exhausted every resource 
of experienced ingenuity to procure from them some sign of suffering. 
Scalping, pouring boiling oil upon their heads, tearing ofT the nails 
from their hands, lacerating their flesh, cutting the living bodies 
almost to pieces, burning them with red-hot irons — all were useless in 
face of a firmness and faith which impelled them to die as became the 
creed they loved when in presence of enemies who, above all things, 
admired the stoical endurance of pain. "We cannot hope " wrote 
Ragueneau in the Relations, of Pere Daniel, his brother in toil and 
tribulation, " but to follow him in the burning path which he had 
trod, but we will gladly suffer for the glory of the Master whom we 
serve." 

The mission at Ste. Marie was strong enough to resist the 
onslaught of the foe and it survived. But, alone in a land which had 
become a desert, with the scattered remnant of its flock fleeing in 
isolated groups over the country from Lake Huron to the St. 
Lawrence and Quebec, it was of little service and, finally, after 
moving to an island in Georgian Bay where the Iroquois followed 
and famine faced the mission, the last centre of Christianity in this 
part of the wilderness was compelled to also seek refuge in the 



THE JESUIT iV/SSIONS AND PIONEER CHRISTIANITY 75 

direction of Quebec. Thus closed one splendid page in the history 
of the Society of Jesus. Another, though less conspicuous one, was 
immediately turned over. The Jesuits had long been anxious to 
found a mission amongst the Iroquois themselves. They believed 
that doing so would be a service to the State as well as to the Church 
and that they might be able in time to ameliorate and soften the 
fierceness of the savage character. 

A few years after the extirpation of the Hurons permission was 
given, during a brief period of peace, and Fathers Le Moyne, Chau- 
mont and Dablon established a mission in the country of the 
Onondagas and went to work with a thousand knives itching for their 
scalps and the knowledge that every moment might be their last. 
Finally, they discovered the threads of a plot for their destruction, 
the simultaneous rising of the Five Nations, and the sweeping of the 
French into the St. Lawrence. The little band of white men escaped 
by a clever rtise which looked to the Indians like a miracle ; and the 
most courageous attempt of the devoted priests had failed. But, 
within ten years, they had obtained a footing and the black-robed 
figures passed to and fro with an immunity born of growing respect 
and of increasing attention to their lessons. In various other and 
distant directions Jesuits, Recollets and priests from the Seminary of 
Quebec penetrated — often where the most daring fur-trader feared to 
go. North of Lake Superior, and from the Illinois to Lake Winnipeg, 
Jesuit priests carved a pathway for French influence and Christian 
instruction. At Sault Ste. Marie and at the far away Michilimackinac 
they established missions and, everywhere, they carved for their Order 
a signal name and fame. Such was the foundation of Roman 
Catholicism in Canada. 

.Curiously different, however, was its effect upon the Indian 
savages and upon the French settlers. Diverse indeed were the 
results of heroism in the wilderness and attempted government in the 



76 THE JESUIT MISSIONS AND PIONEER CHRISTIANITY 

Province. Ono influence made for peace, the other too often led to 
discord. Ijoih, however, had a great moulding power in the making 
of the country amongst cither its savage or its civilized peoples. Up 
to 1658 the Jesuits practically controlled the spiritual affairs of the 
Colony and their labours had, of course, been largely of a missionary- 
nature. There was little ecclesiastical organization and no hierarchy. 
But, in the year named, Francois de Laval de Montmorency, Abbe 
de Montigny, in France, was consecrated Bishop of Petrea and Vicar- 
Apostolic of New France. 

THREE r,RE.\T ECCLESIASTICS 

From the following year until 1688, and from ,1692 until his 
death in i 70S, this militant, labourious and devoted Prelate crave his 
whole energies, his entire wealth and life to the establishment of 
his Church and the extension of her influence. His high birth and 
considerable means were sources of great strength in those days, 
when added to the prestige of ecclesiastical position, and these ele- 
ments of power Mgr. de Laval used with all the force of a somewhat 
over-bearing spirit and a tremendous religious zeal, to rule the Colony 
for the good of itself and the Church. 

To him the welfare of the State was bound up in the progress 
of the Church, and it was, therefore, natural that a man of imperious 
character in ihe position of the Bishop of Quebec — a See to which 
he was forniall)- appointed in 1674, and which covered nearly the 
whole of North America — should enter into conflict at times with the 
civil power. With De Frontenac, wOio was a singularly strong 
character in his own sphere, one of these contests occurred and 
resulted in the aged Bishop going to France in person and winning 
the King's favour for his unceasing efTort to suppress the liquor trafific 
with the Indians. Similar dififerences arose in connection with his 
policy of making the Sovereign Council subservient to him rather than 
to the Governor. With some of the more powerful of his clergy 




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THE JESUIT MISSIONS AND PIONEER CHRISTIANITY 79 

disputes also came as the inevitable result of his dominant and domin- 
ating will. Like his humbler predecessors in the Society of Jesus, 
neither distance, danger nor privation had any terrors for him. From 
the missions of Acadie to the far valley of Lake Champlain and the 
wild regions of the Upper Lakes, he travelled and organized and 
inspired his priests and adherents with new energy and enthusiasm. 
At Quebec he founded the Grand Seminary in 1663 and the Minor 
Seminary five years later, and from those institutions there soon 
flowed a fresh stream of devoted priests. By this time a number of 
strong and growing religious institutions were strengthening the cords 
of the Church in Montreal and Quebec. They included the Sul- 
picians at the former place, the Jesuits and Recollets at the latter ; 
the Ursuline Convent in Quebec, which had braved so many pioneer 
perils under charge of the venerated Md'lle de la Peltric and Marie 
de r Incarnation ; the Congregation of the Ladies of Notre Dame, 
at Montreal under the control of Marguerite Bourgfeois : the Hotel 
Dieu, built at Quebec, as a gift from the Duchess D'Aguillon , and 
the similar institution in Montreal created by Md'lle de la Mance and 
Madame de Bouillon. These institutions under the Bishop's fos- 
tering care, or through the intense militant spirit of the heroic women 
in charge, had prospered greatly and been of untold service to the 
oft-times weary, sick and despairing colonists. 

Such in brief was the work and character of the Father of his 
Church in New France. A long line of more or less able and earnest 
men succeeded him. Mgr. Jean Baptiste de St. Vallier, who spent 
immense sums founding and helping religious institutions ; Mgr. de 
Pontbriand, who established the Hospital of the Grey Nuns in 
Montreal, with the assistance of Mde. d'Youville, and died just after 
seeing the smoking ruins of his Cathedral in Quebec as a result of 
the siege of 1759 ; Mgr. Jean Oliver Briand, who had to face the new 
conditions following the English conquest and to make his office one 



8o THE JESUIT MISSIONS AND PIONEER CHIilSTlANlTT 

of diplomacy and racial conciliation, as well as of religious oversight ; 
Mgr. Joseph Octave Plessis, the greatest of French Catholic ecclesi- 
• astics after the founder of the Church in Canada, and the most loyal 
and successful of administrators. 

He understood and studied, as no man had previously done, the 
causes of the French overthrow in Canada, and he \vas clear-headed 
enough to appreciate the freedom of development accorded under the 
new regime. He founded colleges and schools, and took a place in 
the Legislative Council and an active part in its work, visited Eng- 
land and Rome in 1819, and finally succeeded in establishing Quebec 
as a sort of a central See with Suffragans or \'icars-Apostolic at 
Kingston in Upper Canada, on the Red River in the far North, at 
Montreal, and in Nova Scotia. He died in 1S25, after nineteen years 
of an administration which had revived the fruits of Mgr. de Laval's 
labours, and had extended his Church in an organized sense over 
much of the vast region originally covered by the Jesuit Fathers. 

The Church, meanwhile, did not prove ungrateful to England for 
the favours of toleration and freedom which had been conferred at 
the Conquest. In 1775 Bishop Briand issued a il/i^zw^/^/wi-;// denouncing 
the "pernicious design " of the invaders under Montgomery and 
Arnold, praising the magnanimity and kindness of the King toward 
his French subjects, and urging the defence of homes and frontiers 
and religious interests against the Continental troops. During the 
troubles preceding the War of iSir IMgr. Plessis took still stronger 
ground and, In a long and eloquent Maiidcmcnt, issued on September 
1 6th, 1807, and based on the principle of " Fear God and honour the 
King," he urged loyalty to Great Britain and denounced as unworthy 
the name of Catholic or Canadian any individual who was not ready 
to take up arms in opposing a possible American invasion. A little 
later, when American missionaries began to stir up the people with 
promises of what republican liberty would do for them, he issued a 



THE JESUIT MISSIONS AND PIONEER CHRISTIANITY 8i 

letter of concise and stringrent instructions to all the Cures of his 
Diocese, regarding- the necessity of inculcating loyalty. And, in the 
result, the influence and power of the Church was very plainly shown 
in 1775 and 1S12. 

POWER AND PROGRESS 

Meantime, in the part of Canada now called Ontario, and which 
had been watered by the blood of the Jesuits in the Huron Missions, 
French settlements had gradually appeared and, toward the end of 
the eighteenth century, a number of Scotch and Loyalist colonists. 
At Sandwich, not far from the future city of Detroit, a number of the 
French had settled at the time of the Conquest and to the banks of 
the St. Lawrence, in the County of Glengarry, there came forty years 
later a number of Catholic Highlanders. In 1S03 they were joined 
by Alexander Macdonell, the Father of the Church in Upper Canada. 
Like his prototype, Mgr. de Laval, and his colleague Mgr. Edmund 
Burke, who went to Nova Scotia after a brief stay at Sandwich, 
Father Macdonell feared neither pain, nor privation, nor labour, in the 
missionary work of the Church. Consecrated Bishop of Upper Canada 
in 1820 he liwjd for nineteen years to preside over the progress of the 
Church in that Province as he had already done in strenuous and 
unselfish fashion over its birth and early years. Writing in 1836 to Sir 
Francis Bond Head, Governor of the Colony, he pointed with pride to 
the erection during his pioneer episcopate of thirty-three churches and 
chapels, to the education and training — largely at his own expense — 
of twenty-two clergymen, and to the expenditure of ^13,000 of his own 
private means, as well as the collection of much more from friends 
abroad. The following extract is illustrative of these early conditions 
and was written in reply to attacks made upon him in the Assembly : 

"Upon entering my pastoral duties I had the whole Province in charge, and was 
without any assistance for ten years. During that period I had to travel over the 
country from I-ake Superior to the Province line of Lower Canada, carrying the sacred 



82 THE JESUIT MISSIONS AND PIONEER CHRISTIANITY 

vestments sometimes on my back and sometimes in Indian birch canoes ; living w-ith 
savages without any othc-r shelter or comfort but their fires and their furs and the 
bramhcs of the trees afforded ; crossing the great lakes and rivers, and even descend- 
ing the rapids of the St. Lawrence, in their dangerous and wretched craft. Nor were 
the hardships which I endured among the settlers and immigrants less than those I had 
to encounter among the savages themselves, in their miserable shanties exposed on all 
sides to the weather and destitute of every comfort." 

During the i6o years covered by the arrival of Mgr. de Laval 
and the death of Bishop Macdonell in 1839, much progress had been 
made by the Church of Rome elsewhere in the country. Faraway in 
the North-West, wandering priests had ministered from time to time 
to the Indians, but it was not until the consecration of Father X. B. 
Provencher in i Si 8 as a Bishop and his appearance on the banks of 
the Red River, that organized work commenced there. From that 
time on steady and successful missionary labours were maintained, 
amid the most severe hardships, intense cold and every form of 
privation. In the Maritime Provinces, or "Acadie the Fair," the 
Jesuits early appeared on the scene — the first to arrive being the Rev. 
Nicholas Aubrey, who had landed fifty years before Laval arrived at 
Quebec. F'athers Ouentin and DuThet, Biard and Masse were later 
pioneers. Then came the Recollets and the Franciscan Fathers and, 
in 1676, Father Petit became the first Vicar-General of Acadie. 
Under British rule. Father Edmund Burke, who had been labouring 
with enthusiasm for a number of years, was in 18 18 made a Bishop 
and Vicar-Apostolic of Nova Scotia. During the early years of the 
century, owing to large accessions of Catholic Scotchmen to this 
population, the Church grew rapidly in numbers and influence. Thus 
the seed sown by the Jesuits in the soil of North America began to 
fructify after they had passed away and produced in the course of a 
century and a half a strong Church, planted in Quebec amongst a 
large and growing population and elsewhere placed in a position 
suited for great future development. 



CHAPTER IV 
The Land of Evangeline 

LONGFELLOW has immortalized an occurrence in Canadian 
histor}^ which was notable in itself and which will always live 
in public memory. But back of that event were a hundred 
and fifty years of stirring Acadian annals — years of sorrow and suf- 
fering, of struggle and success. Before Champlain had founded 
Quebec, or Henry Hudson discovered the great northern waters 
which bear his name, a French Huguenot settlement was established 
on an island in the mouth of the St. Croix River, as it rolls down 
from between the present boundary lines of Canada and the United 
States. In this pioneer and unsuccessful effort by the Sieur de 
Monts in 1604, he had the patronage of Henry IV. of France; and 
a beginning was thus made to the prolonged struggle for possession 
of what came to be called the land of Acadie, which included within 
its bounds the present Provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick 
and that part of the State of Maine east of the Kennebec River. 

THE LAND OF ACADIE 

It was, upon the whole, a goodly region, watered by beautiful 
rivers and innumerable brooks, covered by splendid forests and pos- 
sessed of a soft and pleasant summer climate. But the Canadian 
winter — that cold, stern period of snow and ice, to which the French 
always found it so hard to accommodate their memories of the mild 
weather of southern Europe — was sure to be a source of constant 
suffering ; and not the least so to the pioneer band of settlers at the 
mouth of the St. Croix. When the earliest buds and birds of spring 
appeared, De Monts and Champlain abandoned a situation open to 



8 1 THE LAND OF EVANGELINE 

all the frozen blasts of the ocean and the river, and established them- 
selves at a place which they termed Port Royal and which, within more 
modern days, has become known as Annapolis. At the head of the 
beautiful Annapolis Basin, sheltered from the sea by guardian senti- 
nels of rock and shielded from the storms of land by wooded hills, 
the site of the new settlement was, in the summer season, a scene of 
sunshine and loveliness, in winter a verv haven of rest to the half- 
clothed, inexperienced, but lig^ht-hearted Frenchmen. 

SUFFERINGS ANlJ HARDSHIPS OF EARLY SETTLERS 

The leaders of this colonization effort stand out very clearly 
upon the pages of Canadian history. Pierre du Guast, Sieur de 
Monts, was one of those adventurous figures who build much of 
romance and attractiveness into the making of nations. From the 
French Kincr he had obtained a tjrant of land which misrht have been 

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made to cover the whole region from Montreal to the Philadelphia of 
the distant future, and with his two ships and a crew which included 
thieves and gentlemen in about equal proportions, the light-hearted 
nobleman of a brilliant court had started upon his task — one in which 
Cartier and De Roberval and De La Roche had already failed to 
effect any practical success and had endured much of privation and 
sufTerincr. 

With him were Champlain — already the central figure of St. 
Lawrence explorations — and Jean de Biencourt, Baron de Poutrin- 
court. The latter was a wealthy and energetic nobleman of Picardy, 
whose whole heart came to be wrapped up in the success of the 
enterprise. After the first troubles at St. Croi.x and the later settle- 
ment at Port Royal, Poutrincourt paid a visit to France, in which 
he was later on joined by De Monts, and returned during the spring 
of 1606, with mechanics and labourers for the infant colony. With 
him was the merry, shrewd and scholarly L'Escarbot, who has left 
behind such interesting records of the events connected with these 



THE LASD OF EVANGELINE 85 

settlements. One other important personage concerned in early 
Acadian colonization was Pontgrave, a rich Breton merchant of St. 
Malo, who had already shared in the Champlain expedition up the 
St. Lawrence. 

The years that immediately followed were of stirring and ever- 
changing interest. Port Royal became the centre of storm-clouds 
which reached in shadowy outline from Paris to London and back 
again to this tiny settlement on the verge of a vast continent. 
Champlain, meanwhile, explored and surveyed and schemed, while 
L'Escarbot looked after the planting and sowing and reaping. De 
Monts continued in Paris to try and counter the plots of enemies and 
hold the rights he had been granted. The winter of 1606-7 was the 
famous occasion of Champlain's " Order of a Good Time," when the 
fifteen leading men of the colony met in Poutrincourt's dining-hall 
and revelled each day for some hours in good fellowship and good 
fare and the (rood cheer of a wit which was Parisian in its character 
and cleverness. With the picturesque group of gentlemen-adventurers 
sat the Sagamore Memberton, bearing upon his shoulders the burden 
of a hundred years, the responsibility of tribal leadership and the 
reputation of sincere friendship for the whites. 

This jolly and prosperous season, however, was the calm before 
the storm, and in the spring-time came a ship from St. Malo bearing, 
not the familiar figure of De Monts with new resources and fresh 
settlers, but the intelligence that his enemies had triumphed and his 
charter been revoked. There was nothing for it but to pluck up the 
deepening roots of settlement and return to the motherland, and this 
Poutrincourt did with a sore heart and a steadfast determination to 
return again. He took up the mantle of interest and labour which 
De Monts now droppc d and, while Champlain proceeded to write his 
own name large in the history of the New France which he hoped to 
establish on the banks of the St. Lawrence, Poutrincourt continued 



86 THE LAND OF EVANGELINE 

faithful to Port Royal and in 1610 returned with new settlers and a 
zealous priest — Father la Fleche — who soon succeeded in converting 
the friendly Memberton and his entire tribe. 

In the following year came another crisis and the death of 
Henry IV, by the knife of Ravaillac, brought upon the European 
scene the towering and merciless figure of Marie de Medicis and 
upon the smaller Acadian arena the black-robed and stormy figure of 
the Jesuit. The Society of Jesus was now predominant at Paris and 
it proceeded to take possession, or attempted to take possession, of 
the souls of the people in Acadie. If its zealous representatives had 
shown only the religious courage and constancy of their later 
colleagues in the region of the Great Lakes, much difficulty might have 
been spared the struggling colonists and much of the strife averted 
which is said to have caused Poutrincourt to once cry out to them : 
"Show me the path to Heaven and I will show you yours on earth." 
The founder of the new colony was now merely able to hold his little 
territory around Port Royal while Madame de Guercheville, a lady of 
the French Court famed for both virtue and beauty, had obtained the 
rights of the Huguenot merchants at St. Malo and transferred them 
to the Jesuits and had also received from Louis XIII. a grant of the 
whole of North America from the St. Lawrence to Florida. 

RIV.-VL COLONIE.S AND RACES 

But to have was not to hold, as was soon to be seen at Port 
Royal, and as might have been gathered from the terms of any 
French charter which included the English settlements of Virginia 
and Maine within its scope. The Society of Jesus was now, how- 
ever, nominally in control of the continent, through its fair devotee 
and as far as the fiat of a French King could avail. In Acadie, 
Father la Fleche was soon supported by Fathers Biard and Masse, 
and their labours carried the banner of their faith far and wide 
amongst the Indians. In 16 13, Madame de Guercheville sent out a • 









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THE LAND OF EVANGELINE 89 

fresh expedition with men and stores and accompanied by two more 
Jesuit priests — Ouentin and Du Thet — and a settlement on the coast 
of New England was formed at a place which was named St. Laurent. 
The action was taken in defiance of, or indifference to, the claims of 
England and met a very speedy ending. One day in the later spring 
a stoutly-armed vessel sailed into the natural harbour which, as its 
Captain had just learned from Indians, sheltered from sight of the 
sea Frenchmen who had dared to intrude upon soil claimed for the 
blood-red flag which waved at his mast-head. The settlement was 
promptly uprooted by the commander who, in the future, was to 
become wealthy and well-known as Sir Samuel Argall and always and 
everywhere as a bitter enemy of the French. He followed up this 
success by a raid upon Port Royal which he found defenceless, Bien- 
court — the gallant son of the adventurous Poutrincourt — being away 
from his command in an expedition against the Indians. The place 
was pillaged and burned to the ground and even the crops in the 
fields were destroyed. Argall returned in triumph to Virginia and 
the unhappy French colonists struggled through the ensuing winter 
by means of wild roots and the help of half-starved and friendly 
Indians. Poutrincourt, shortly after this event, died a soldier's death in 
France and his son, who had already inherited his ability and energy, 
obtained the rank of Vice-Admiral and remained in Acadie to hunt, fish, 
shoot, trade, and guard the remnants of his cherished settlement. 
Ultimately, he rebuilt Port Royal and in this as well as in his generally 
adventurous life, was strongly seconded by a young Huguenot noble- 
man — Charles de la Tour -who was destined to take an important 
part in the stern game of war and colonization which followed. 

Meanwhile, as a result of Argall's raids, Great Britain began to 
press the claims upon the soil of North America which Cabot's 
discoveries seemed to give. By right of settlement the greater part 
of the Atlantic coast from Acadie downward was already British ; by 



90 THE LAND OF EVANGELINE 

right of discovery, and despite a record of colonization and explora- 
tion which now crowns French energy and enterprise with honour, 
claim was laid to the whole of what has become known as Canada and 
was for nearly a century called British America. In times of war 
between France and England this claim continued to be aggressively 
presented by British invasion or British expeditions ; in times of 
nominal peace it was too often urged by Colonial invasion and New 
England raids, followed or preceded by French expeditions of a 
similarly lawless character. 

In 1614, King James I. granted to a Plymouth Association all 
the lands lying between the 45th and 48th parallels and called the 
reo-ion New England. There was, of course, a New France already 
in existence and a New Spain was now taking unto itself much of the 
southern part of the continent. Sir William Alexander, afterwards 
Earl of Sterling and \'iscount Canada, a man of letters, and a patri- 
otic Scotchman, resolved that there should also be a New Scotland. 
From the King he obtained, in 1621, a grant of the whole of Acadie 
under the general name of Nova Scotia, and including the Maritime 
Provinces of the present day. He began quietly by making a small 
settlement and then sending out ships yearly with trading and explor- 
ino- parties. The younger Poutrincourt was now Commandant of 
Acadie in the name of the P^rench King and, with De la Tour, presented 
to the thrifty Scotchman a rather difficult nut for breaking by either 
the weapons of diplomacy or war. But the latter was a man of re- 
source and had he been backed up by the weight of practical assist- 
ance from the Crown, as well as of its nominal patronage, he would 
have eventually built up a strong Scotch dependency. Charles I. 
renewed his charter in 1625 and also approved an undertaking which 
has been since criticized, very unfairly and ignorantly, by men who 
know nothing of the spirit of that age and judge everything by the 
somewhat mercenary and largely democratic spirit of the present time. 



THE LAND OF EVANGELINE $i 

An Order of Knights-Baronets of Nova Scotia was established 
by which, in return for certain substantial contributions to the 
Colonization fund and the pledge of planting actual settlements on 
the lands granted by the Crown, each member of the Order was to be 
given an estate of eighteen square miles. Many a title has been 
accorded for less service to the State, present or prospective, than this 
and, given a reasonably fair selection of the gentleman upon whom the 
honour and the opportunity were conferred, it is difficult to see why 
abuse and sneers should be levelled at the scheme and its originator. 
About the same time the crafty Richelieu was inaugurating in New 
France the Company of the Hundred Associates with similar objects 
in view though with natural differences in detail. Something was 
done in carrying out the plan and soon a number of estates dotted 
the English maps of Nova Scotia which would hardly be found in a 
French map of Acadie. The settlements were not so quick in 
maturing, but a certain number of immigrants did come out despite 
the fresh war which soon began between England and France. 

When Admiral Kirke arrived on the expedition which so 
triumphantly terminated in the temporary capture of Quebec, he bore 
down upon battle-scarred Port Royal and declared the whole country 
to be under the rule and g-overnment of Sir William Alexander's 
Company, or Order. Poutrincourt, the younger, had died some years 
before this but Charles de la Tour still held a strong position at Fort 
St. Louis, near Cape Sable. Here, in 1629, he shut himself up and 
defied the English, though his father, Claude de la Tour, was 
captured on his way with supplies and armament for Port Royal and 
was carried to an English prison. These survivors of the Huguenot . 
aristocracy of the old world are very picturesque figures in the early 
history of the new one. The elder was a trader by profession and 
perhaps at heart. He was certainly far from possessing the many 
patriotic and gallant qualities of his son. To the English Court and 



92 rilE LAXn OF EVANGELINE 

English statecraft he was felt, however, to be a great pjrize. The 
power of the family in Acadie was well-known, though it was forgotten, 
or unknown, that the greater influence settled in the person and 
around the character of its younger member. 

Claude de la Tour was made much of in England, feted every- 
where, married to a lady of the Court, made a Knight-Baronet of 
Nova Scotia, granted forty-five hundred square miles of territory on 
the Atlantic coast, and gradually won over to espouse the cause of 
England and to promise the support of his son — who was included in 
the titles and grants. But he had undertaken too much and when, in 
1630, he arrived at Port Louis with British ships and colonists and 
the assurance of support to his plans, he was repulsed in his negotia- 
tions and in the assault which followed their failure, and was com- 
pelled to withdraw to Port Royal with his settlers and the wife who 
had been led to expect a triumphant entry into new and vast posses- 
sions and an early acquisition of territory for the Crown of England. 
She remained faithful to her husband, however, through good and evil 
report, through the sunshine of success and the shadow of sorrow. The 
latter unfortunately predominated and when, two years after this time, 
peace was concluded by the respective Sovereigns and New France and 
Acadie both handed back to France, the father had the humiliation of 
having to seek refuge with his son and to find himself stripped of both 
his reputation and his resources. Thence he fades from the canvas of his- 
tory. Charles de la Tour had, in the meantime, won high credit for his 
refusal of English approaches and in 1631 became the French King's 
Lieutenant-General in Acadie with sufficient men and arms and supplies 
to surround the position with something more than an empty halo. 

Then followed the despatch of Isaac de Razily, a relation of 
Richelieu, with a definite mission to drive the Scotch out of Acadie ; 
and with him were Nicholas Denys, destined to succeed L'Escarbot 
as a picturesque scribe, and D'Aubray Charnisay, a French nobleman 



THE LAND OF EVANGELINE 93 

of ability and intense ambition. Various minor struggles with New- 
England ensued in which success generally rested with the French 
and where both De la Tour and Charnisay distinguished themselves. 
De Razily died in 1636 and left his power in the divided hands of two 
antagonistic and ambitious men. De la Tour retired to a new fortress 
which he had built at the mouth of the St. John River, and for five 
years ruled, practically, over the Nova Scotia peninsula. Charnisay 
remained at Port Royal, which he had rebuilt and greatly strengthened, 
and maintained authority along the coast of the New Brunswick and 
Maine of the future, from Chignecto to Pemaquid. 

JEALOUSY OF GREAT RIVALS 

Each was jealous of the other's power and plans but, while De la 
Tour rested in proud contempt within the walls of his fortress, sur- 
rounded by his family and relatives, his soldiers, Indians and steadily 
successful fur-traders, Charnisay sought the seat of power and under- 
mined his rival's reputation at the Court of France. In 1641 he was 
successful. De la Tour was deprived of his position and possessions 
and ordered to France under arrest. It was a desperate case. To 
go was to meet ruin at the hands of a Cardinal who hated the 
Huguenots ; to stay was to court ruin as a rebel. But in the latter 
case De la Tour knew his friends would stand by him, and his fol- 
lowers fight for him ; while chance might at any time reverse the con- 
ditions prevalent at Paris. He, therefore, stayed and his defiance 
resulted in a strife which filled the forests and coasts of Acadie with 
the sights and sounds of civil war during a number of years. 

It was the war of a hero, and the fitting wife of a hero, with a man 
whose character has been revealed by the light of passing years, and 
of history, as so infamous in its indifference to honour and integrity as 
to defy the powers of restrained description. The real qualities of 
De la Tour were open to the world, and had obtained the respect of 
all who knew him. As so often happens in the history of countries, 

6 



94 THE LAND OF EVANGELINE 

he was the one man who, at this crisis, mij^ht have made Acadie a great 
and prosperous French state. But he was denied the opportunity by 
a fate that has ordained other ends for the region which two rivals 
were then struggling with such varied motives to possess and rule. 
Those of Dela Tour were the ambitions of a patriot combined with 
much of the prescience of a statesman. Those of Charnisay were 
the self-seeking principles of a trader combined with the unscrupulous 
personal designs of a Philippe Egalite. 

The conflict began by Charnisay attacking Fort La Tour at the 
mouth of the St. John, in the spring of 1643, and being repulsed with 
considerable loss. It continued through his close investment of the 
place and the arrival of reinforcements from France ; and was marked 
by the escape of Dela Tour and his wife to Boston through the close 
lines of the enemy and by their return in triumph with five ships full 
of strong and willincr men from Massachusetts. It ended, for the 
moment, in the chagrin and amazement of Charnisay and his hasty 
flight to Port Royal. The result should have been a permanent one, 
with Port Royal taken and Charnisay captured. But the New Eng- 
landers had to be considered and De la Tour found that they were 
amply content with the booty in furs which they had gained and the 
terms which they had forced him to yield. Perhaps, too, their thrifty 
patriotism saw possibilities of injury to France and benefit to them- 
selves in not too suddenly ending the war of the rivals. De la Tour, 
therefore, set himself to strengthen his defences and consolidate his 
resources, while his brave wife — whose conduct during the hardships of 
the siege, the escape,and the journey to Boston had already been heroic 
— started for France to obtain assistance from her Huguenot friends 
in Rochelle. Charnisay, meanwhile, departed for Paris, where he 
arranged to have his rival's wife arrested for treason. She escaped 
him, however, reached England in safety and after twelve weary 
months of peril and adventure arrived home at Fort La Tour. 



THE LAND UF EVANGELIXE 95 

She had brought some help back with her and her husband went 
to Boston to o-et more with the intention of this time finishingr his foe. 
Charnisay heard of his departure and with cruisers and troops at 
once invested the fortress. The gallant wife did everything to supply 
her husband's place and, perhaps, she more than filled it. Supplies 
ran short and traitors were discovered. Instead of being hung they 
were mistakenly driven with contempt from the Fort and Intelligence 
thus aftorded Charnisay as to the state of the garrison. Fire was 
opened by his battleships, but it was replied to with a force and good- 
will which destroyed one of his ships and drove back his men with 
heavy loss. For two months the heroic garrison and the gallant lady 
defied his blockade and laughed, apparently, at the assault which he 
was afraid to deliver. De la Tour, meanwhile, had returned from 
Boston and lay cruising as near as possible to the scene of the siege, 
but his single ship was no match for the fleet of his enemy. One 
night, in the month of April, Charnisay plucked up courage to once 
more defy the chances of battle with this woman who seemed able 
to resist all the men and ships he could brins: against her. Durino- 
three days the fresh struggle lasted, while every rampart was attacked 
at once and every weak spot seemed known to the enemy. But the 
starving garrison, though depleted in numbers and weakened by 
privation, seemed Inspired with the courage of their leader and held 
their own with the fortitude of men who knew that they were iio-ht- 
ing against fate, but that they were doing so for a woman who was 
worthy of their loyalty and the sacrifice of their lives. 

At last a Swiss mercenary turned traitor and threw open the 
gates. Charnisay entered in triumph, but none knew better than he 
that victory was still far away. Then came the blackest and meanest 
deed in the history of the northern part of the continent. Afraid of 
this woman, afraid of being again repulsed by her leadership in the 
prolonged fight which must still follow, Charnisay asked for a truce 



96 THE LAND OF EVANGELINE 

and offered honourable terms. With a woman's natural desire to 
save her brave followers, Madame de la Tour consented and the 
terms of capitulation were duly drawn up. Then, with the fortress 
in his hands and the chatelaine at his mercy, this mockery of a man 
tore up the document, repudiated his obligations and his honour, and, 
placing a halter around the neck of the brave woman who had beaten 
him in fair figfht, forced her to watch the death strug-o-les of her 
soldiers as one by one they were hung on the ramparts. Carried to 
Port Royal by the conqueror, the heroine of Acadie died of a broken 
heart at the end of three long and weary weeks spent, no doubt, in 
brooding- thought over a broken home and butchered followers and a 
husband who was now a wanderer on the face of the earth. 

A TURN OF THE WHEEL OF FATE 

Charnisay, like the wicked of Scriptural fame, flourished to the 
full of his expectations during the next few years. Supreme in Acadie, 
confident of his favour at Court, fair of word and arrangement with 
New England, reaping riches from the fur-trade, successful in crush- 
ing his only remaining rival — Nicholas Denys, who had been his 
friend and schoolmate, but had become rich and strong in Cape 
Breton Island — this traitor and perjured murderer seemed well con- 
tent with his fortune and fate and devoted a good deal of time to the 
Christianizing of the Indians. Suddenly, in 1650, as if in mockery 
of his fair future hopes and the brightness of his prospects, he fell 
into the little river at Port Royal and was drowned like a rat. De la 
Tour, meanwhile, had been treated with the respect he deserved in 
the parts of New England and the continent in which he had spent five 
years of a wandering life, and was now able to go to France, refute the 
falsehoods of his enemy and receive every reparation which the King 
could give. 

He was made Governor of Acadie, the fur-trade monopoly was 
placed in his hands and, to ensure the permanence of his fortune, he 



THE LAND OF EVANGELINE 99 

cut another knot of difficulty by marrying Charnisay's widow and 
takino; the children of his crreat rival into his hands and under his 
protection. But it is easy to believe that nothing, to a man of his 
sensibilities and character, could compensate for the shattered home 
of his earlier happiness, or the death of the brave men who had 
helped to make and keep his earlier fortunes. Another turn of the 
wheel of fate was in store, however, for both the French Governor 
and the oroverned. England was now in the stern and successful 
hands of Cromwell and a large expedition, which had been sent to 
capture the Dutch settlements on the Hudson, was turned suddenly 
and without notice upon Acadie, through peace being patched up 
between England and Holland. De la Tour was easily overpowered 
under such circumstances and Acadie over-run. Boston and New 
England were at the back of the new move ; Cromwell, who seems 
to have understood the great issues turning upon the apparently petty 
struggles of these rival settlements refused to intervene, or to restore 
Acadie to France; and Dela Tour was seemingly crushed and ruined 
once more. But he was not the man to meet such a fate without 
effort. Going to England, he saw Cromwell and impressed him, evi- 
dently, by both his arguments and his personality. The stern Pro- 
tector relented, and granted the whole region down into the centre 
of what is now the State of Maine to a Company which included 
De la Tour and Sir Thomas Temple. The latter was made Governor, 
the former soon sold out his great interests in the grant and, weary 
of tempting fate, retired to the comfortable obscurity of private life. 
Until 1667, when Charles H. gave back Acadie to France in the 
Treaty of Breda, the land rested in reasonable quietude. From that 
time until the finger of fate placed its seal upon the country in 1710 
and made it British, Acadie, or Nova Scotia as it was called in Eng- 
land, had many Governors, but no man of towering personality 
amongst them. And, though its place is so important upon the 

LofC. 



loo THE LAND OF EVANGELINE 

pages of history, its white population during this period could always 
be counted by hundreds and only rose into thousands as a small and 
steady migration toward the end of the eighteenth century began to 
have a perceptible influence. The most striking figure in these last 
years of French rule was that of the Baron St. Castin — hunter and 
wood-rano^er, ficfhter in a lawless fashion on behalf of law and order, 
warden of the marshes upon the Penobscot, friend of the Indians and 
Sfuardian of Acadian soil atjainst New Eng^land raids. With his 
Indian wife, with wealth gained by the fur-trade, and with influence at 
Port Royal maintained through his power over the Indians, St. Castin 
presents a most picturesque personality and one full of material for 
the romancist in these later days of the fiction historical. 

Meanwhile, the Province shared in the ups and downs of Colonial 
rivalry and war. It suffered from the raid of Sir William Phipps and 
his Boston men in i6go; from the soldiers of Fort William Henry at 
Pemaquid ; from the ever fluctuating boundaries and the devastation 
of Indian fio-htin^ on one side or the other. In these conflicts, St. 
Castin shared and at times triumphed while, in 1692, Iberville 
Le Moyne, the dashing darling of French-Canadian history, sailed 
into the Bay of Fundy, fought the British fleet in a drawn battle and 
captured the fort at Pemaquid. In 17 10, the end of Acadie as a 
French country came when Colonel Nicholson, with English ships and 
Colonial soldiers on the way to again attempt the capture of Quebec, 
overpowered the little garrison of Port Royal and over-ran the 
Province. The war-scarred fortress was re-named Annapolis in 
honour of Oueen Anne, and, althouorh St. Castin and his Indians did 
their best for the Lilies of France and tried hard to again take pos- 
session of Pemaquid when Nicholson left, the struggle was useless. 
Although the expedition against Quebec had failed, England was in 
a strong enough position in Europe to dictate terms and by the 
Treaty of Utrecht in 171 3 to retain Acadie while only giving up to 



THE LAND OF EVANGELINE loi 

France the Islands now known as Cape Breton and Prince Edward ; 
together with certain fishing privileges on the coast of Newfoundland. 
Now began the evolution of the romantic and regrettable Acadian 
question. The people of French extraction, during the years of peace 
which followed, increa.sed largely in numbers and certainly did not 
decrease in sentimental loyalty toward France. Their Mother-country 
was steadily strengthening its position in the Gulf of St. Lawrence 
with a view to the future re-conquest of Acadie. The vast fortifica- 
tions of Louisbourg were designed by Vauban and built at great 
expense on the Island of Cape Breton. That place became the head- 
quarters of French power and pretentions on the Atlantic, the home 
of French privateers, and the Mecca of Acadian hopes. It supplied 
the Acadians with a market for their products, kept them in touch 
with French sympathies and aspirations and plots, and prevented 
their peaceful acceptance of British rule. 

CONDUCT AND CHARACTER OF THE ACADIANS 

They professed neutrality, refused to take the oath of allegiance 
without a proviso against being compelled to take up arms in opposi- 
tion to France, and became the easy victims of emissaries from 
Quebec intent upon stirring up mischief ; the freqent allies of the 
ever-hostile Indians ; and the friendly spies of the Louisbourg garri- 
son. Presently, the country came once more within touch of the 
swinging pendulum of European war and, in 1745, after one of the 
most memorable sieges of history — and an incidental French attempt 
to capture Annapolis — the mighty fortress of Louisbourg, the sentinel 
and guardian of French power on the Atlantic, was captured by Wil- 
liam Pepperell and his gallant New Englanders. Three years later 
it was returned to France and during the eight years following con- 
tinued to be a thorn in the flesh to English power in Nova Scotia — 
the Acadie of old. Along the unsettled borders of that vaguely 
defined region, the French of Quebec also maintained their claims and 



102 THE LAND OF EVANGELINE 

a policy of pin-pricks and fretful irritation. They were helped by the 
sullen, silly attitude of the Acadians and by the ever-available informa- 
tion furnished by a friendly population of French and Indian and 
mixed extraction. 

After the founding of Halifax, in 1749, and the steady accretion 
of English or Scotch immigrants, it was decided that something must 
be done with the Acadians, who would neither leave the country and 
join their friends or remain in the country as faithful subjects. They 
wanted to live at peace and in possession of their homes with the 
privilege of acting as enemies of British supremacy when it so 
pleased them. This was the real meaning of "neutrality" under 
existing conditions. Governor Cornwallis called the leaders into 
conference in 1749 without success and warned them without effect. 
A few were sensible and took the oath and kept it. The majority 
were not and still remained subject to the machinations of French 
authorities, or the schemes of French priests such as the notorious 
Le Loutre. This man, typical of the restless condition of the coun- 
try and embodying fierce fanaticism worthy of his devoted followers 
amongst the Mic-macs, made himself the centre of discontent, of 
border warfare, of Indian outrage, of midnight raids. The Black 
Abbe, as he was called, dominated loyal and disloyal alike — the 
former by terror and the latter by a sentiment of shrinking respect 
for the intensity of his desire to restore French power. 

The massacre of English people in Dartmouth by Indians under 
his supposed commands ; the building of Fort Beausejour on the 
Isthmus of Chignecto by Acadians working under his compulsion ; 
the murder of Captain Howe near Fort Lawrence, when bearing a • 
flag of truce, and by Indians known to be under Le Loutre's orders ; 
are pages in the life-drama of a most extraordinary man. But the 
end was near. In 1754 the French Governor at Quebec absolved 
Acadians of any allegiance to England whatever, and declared that 



THE LAND OF EVANGELINE 103 

they must join the militia of New France against the common 
enemy. Colonel Lawrence, Governor of Nova Scotia, naturally retali- 
ated by proclaiming that any Acadian who had taken the oath and 
was cauorht fig-htinor asrainst the British Crown would be shot as a 
deserter. The French planned an invasion from Beausejour, the 
English anticipated the movement and captured the fort which was 
promptly demolished. 

A PATHETIC EVENT 

Then followed the pathetic event which has been so widely dis- 
cussed as a result of Longfellow's popular and charming version of 
the story. The qualities of the Acadians naturally lent themselves 
to poetic description and their sad fate has also brought them much of 
sympathy and the halo which time so often throws around the memory 
of great sufferings. But if the gentle, attractive, courteous character 
of the industrious Acadian deserves admiration, so also does his 
weakness in trying to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds, 
deserve condemnation. If the beautiful villag-es of Minas and Grand 
Pre and the lovely little homes of the people win our sympathetic 
appreciation, so also should the continuous effort of the British 
soldiers to protect them and of the British Governor to throw 
around and over them the shield of British allegiance. It had now, 
however, become apparent that the Gordian knot must be cut, and 
the secret enemy within the gates be plainly dealt with. One last 
and vigorous warning was given that the oath must be taken and that 
the olive branch thus held out was final. They were told distinctly 
that British allegiance, or foreign exile, was now to be the Acadians' 
choice. 

They chose the latter, though with an evident disbelief in its 
accomplishment, and an evident faith in their own immunity from 
punishment. Governor Lawrence at once made his arrangements, 
with sternness and secrecy. Colonel Winslow, and troops from New 



104 THE LAND OF EVANGELINE 

England, supervised the operation which began suddenly in the sum- 
mer of 1755. Within a few months over 6000 Acadians were sent 
from Minas, Piziquid, Annapolis and Chignecto to various points in 
the British Colonies to the south — a few to Engfland and the West 
Indies. Every effort was made to keep families together and to 
preserve to the unfortunate their precious lares and penates. But 
there was necessarily much of hardship and suffering, much of 
romantic adventure and stern, unrelieved sorrow. The beautiful and 
historic village of Grand Pre was o^iven to the flames and Nova 
Scotia was finally British to the core. Governor Lawrence, in his 
letter to the Governors of the other Colonies regarding the exiles, 
made this fairly reasonable explanation of his action : 

" I offered such of them as had not been openly in arras against us a continu- 
ance of the possession of their lands if they would take the oath of allegiance unquali- 
fied by any reservation whatsoever ; but this they have most audaciously as well as 
unanimously refused, and if they would presume to do this when there is a large 
fleet of ships of war in the Harbour and a considerable land force in the Province, 
what might we expect from them when the approaching winter deprives us of the 
former and when the troops, who are only hired from New England occasionally and 
for a small time, have returned home. ' ' 

The deed, however, was done and seems to have been one of 
those incidents in a vast, tangled web of Empire-building where an 
isolated Governor did the best he could with a difficult situation. As 
time passed on and events made British power secure against either 
French plot or French assault, the Acadians were allowed to wander 
back to their old homes and to rebuild the altars of their sires, until, 
by the Census of 1891, in the Canadian Provinces of the Atlantic 
there were more than a hundred thousand loyal, light-hearted and 
prosperous British subjects of Acadian descent. 



CHAPTER V 
The French and EngHsh Wars 

IT was a vast and splendid setting which nature provided in North 
America for the panorama of war between France and England. 
Amid the gloomy aisles of endless forests, in a region thousands 
of miles in length and breadth, amid a myriad of lakes and rivers, 
and around the inland seas which empty through the St. Lawrence 
into the Atlantic, bodies of armed men marched to and fro and the 
sound of cannon echoed throuQfh wastes hitherto sacred to the free- 
dom of the animal world and the wild vagaries of savage tribes. 

RIVALRY AND WARFARE OF A CFNTURY 

Sometimes, as the hundred years of intermittent conflict passed 
away, war would break out between the settlements of New France and 
the far away Colonies on the New England coast ; sometimes it reached 
the Canadian shores or passed in a course of devastation down the 
Mississippi and Ohio Valleys ; sometimes the sound of English guns 
would be heard from the ramparts of Quebec, or the tramp of New 
Eng-land volunteers echo through the forests bordering- on the Great 
Lakes ; sometimes it would occur when the Mother-countries were 
nominally at peace ; sometimes the war-hoop of the savage Avould be 
heard on one side, or on both, and the shadow of the scalping knife 
rest over the pioneer homes of French and English alike. Every- 
where and at all times the issue was the ownership of a continent, as 

" The flag of England and the flag of France 
Waved in war's alternate chance.' ' 

The rivalry was inevitable, the hostility bitter, the conflict of 
diplomacy or of war continuous, the result concealed from view and its 

105 



Io6 THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH WARS 

importance hardly understood. For a time, indeed, it was uncertain. 
The French sailors and navisrators were as brave and enthusiastic and 
determined as were the English ; and Cartier, Champlain, De Monts 
and Poutrincourt rank easily with Kirke and Alexander, Gilbert and 
Raleigh. Men like Drake and Frobisher cared little for permanent 
colonization and thought more of destroying a Spanish town or cap- 
turing a French ship in southern seas than of founding a city or estab- 
lishing a colony in the north. The French monarchs, fluctuating as 
was their interest in New France or in Acadia, yet did much more 
than the rulers of England to aid and encourage their infant settle- 
ments. 

CLAIMS OF ENGLAND AND FRANCE 

It is true that England never abandoned the wide and shadowy 
claims which rested upon the discoveries of Cabot, any more than 
France ceased to press those based upon the explorations of Verra- 
zano. But in the former case the claims were used more as a lever 
for checking the enemy's ambition, or for obtaining equivalents else- 
where in peace negotiations, than because England really wished to 
establish an empire in the New World. Hence the result turned 
eventually upon the character of the actual colonists, their fitness for 
the rugged work of pioneer life, and the willingness with which the 
wild adventure, or uncertain trade, or the independence of the wilder- 
ness, might be sought for by the peoples of the home countr)-. In 
this respect France at first took the lead, and, throughout a vast 
extent of country, its voyageurs and trappers and traders swarmed up 
the lakes and rivers and through the pathless forests, emulating the 
Indian in hunting prowess and carrying with them the flag of France. 

North and south of the St. Lawrence, up to Hudson's Bay and 
down the region watered by much of the Mississippi, they led the 
wa)-, and received the fluctuating support of great fur companies 
whose fortunes varied with events of state in Paris and the chances 




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LIEUT. -GENERAL J. GRAVES SIMCOE 

Licutcn.-vnt-Govemor of Upper Canada, 17i>2-l*6 



THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH WARS io$ 

of war in America. The St. Malo Company in 1599; De Montsand 
Champlain for a number of years following 1603; the Rouen Com- 
pany formed by Champlain in 1614, and its rival, De Caen, in 1620; 
the Montmorency, organized from the union of the two latter, in 
1622 ; the famous Company of the Hundred Associates, which largely 
ruled New France between 1627 and 1663 ; the Habitants Company 
of 1645 ; the Du Nord, established at Quebec in 1682 for the purpose 
of Hudson's Bay trade, and others ; found full scope for the longings 
of ambitious and adventurous spirits as well as for the aims of those 
who only desired a means of making money or perhaps of wielding 
power. 

With the hunters and fur-traders — many of the former were of 
noble name and high rank — may be classed in this connection the 
Jesuits who sought the salvation of souls and the expansion of 
France in the wilderness of America. They were path-finders of 
empire as well as leaders of religion and they did much to forward 
the interests of the Most Christian King ; and would have done more 
had they not at times introduced that element of sectarian ascendency 
into secular councils which is always so disastrous to united action. 

Opposed to these influences of zeal and energy and spirit there 
was nothing for a time but the slowly growing line of scattered settle- 
ments along the coast of the Atlantic and some slight English fishing 
interests on the Newfoundland coasts, although further south Spain 
was taking possession of Florida, Mexico, Cuba and other West 
Indian Islands, and Bermuda. Moreover, there was little of unity in 
thought or character between the Puritans of Massachusetts and the 
Cavaliers of Virginia ; to say nothing of the Dutch settlements in 
New York which were to ultimately become English in allegiance and 
name. But there was the great factor of commerce and the greater 
natural gift of a colonizing spirit in the English people. It was not 
the kind of feeling which made migration to New France probable 



no THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH WARS 

SO long as there were abundant chances of war and opportunities for 
a wandering life, but the sentiment which sent a steady stream of 
settlers from England in search of a home and with sturdy willingness 
to take the chances of conflict or the risk of an adventurous life as 
incident to the main object. The I'rench built fortresses and trained 
soldiers and excelled in all the arts of skilled hunting and in the 
fervour of religious self-sacrifice. The English founded homes, 
created villages, developed commerce and considered all the rest as 
incidental to a period which must in time pass away and leave them 
the possessors of a peaceful soil and free communities. With such 
characteristics the result, though hidden from human sight at the time, 
was inevitable when once that thin line of English settlement began 
to grow thick and overflow its borders north and east and south. 

EVIDENCE OF GROWTH OF ENGLISH INFLUENCES 

Argall's expedition into Acadie in 1612, and his conquest of Port 
Royal, formed at once a veiled evidence and a certain commencement 
of this process. Then came Sir William Alexander's grant in 1621 
from King James I., of the whole of Acadie ; his effort to establish a 
colony two years later ; and the failure which followed as a result of 
new French settlements. Charles I. had confirmed this grant in 
1628 and, as war had just been declared against France on behalf of 
the Huguenots, he despatcht-d an expedition to capture New France — 
of which substantial territory, with its shadowy and far-stretching 
boundaries, Acadie was supposed to be in some sense a part. 
Admiral Kirke and his fleet arrived during the summer in the St. 
Lawrence and for the first time in history the English flag swept at 
the mast-head of an English ship between the shores of the great 
Canadian river. Champlain was in a deplorable condition in his 
newly-built citadel on the lofty rock of Quebec, but, though without 
supplies, with few soldiers, and with only a faint hope of support 
from home, he refused the demand to surrender which came from 



THE FRENCH AXD ENGLISH WARS ill 

Tadoussac and held on to his, as yet, poorly fortified capital. The 
English Admiral, however, encountered a large French fleet at the 
mouth of the Saguenay which had been sent to the assistance of 
Champlain, captured part of it and destroyed the rest. Satisfied with 
this success he returned to Eno;-land but in the following year came 
out again and found the French settlement at Quebec on the point of 
starvation and under the necessity of surrender. 

During the three years following, all New France was in the 
hands of the English and much profit was found in the fur-trade ; 
while a Scotch settlement made satisfactory progress at Port Royal, 
in Acadie. By the Treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye, in 1632, how- 
ever, this wide Acadian country was returned to France in exchange 
for a sugar island in the Pacific and for some arrears of money due 
the English King upon his wife's dowry. It was the beginning of a 
long and shifting panorama of war and nominal peace, of rivalry and 
struggle, of intrigue and cabal, of Indian massacre and conflict. 
Amidst it all the clear ambition of French leaders of the class of 
Champlain and Frontenac, or Vaudreuil and Montcalm, shone out 
over the troubled waters of war and corruption in New France and 
made for success in their common aim of a great French Empire in 
America. The prolonged struggle which ensued between the colonies 
of England and those of France did not run along the lines of the 
relation maintained by their Mother-countries. They, of course, 
dropped readily into the mould cast by European wars such as those 
of 1666, the King William's War of 1689-97, the Spanish Succession 
of 1702-3, the Austrian Succession of 1742-48, or the Seven Years' 
War of 1755-63. 

But, preceding and following what might be termed the orthodox 
wars, were the irregular ones rising out of local differences and 
implacable racial rivalries. The first of these were the Acadian 
troubles already referred to and in which the natural instincts of the 



112 Tin: FRENCH AND ENGLISH WARS 

different peoples found some play. During the civil strife which 
occurred in Acadie between De la Tour and Charnisay, with all its 
picturesque features and dramatic incidents, Governor Winthrop of 
Massachusetts illustrated the situation by supporting one of the local 
combatants. As he put the matter, in replying to some one who 
opposed this intervention on religious grounds: " Is it more safe, just 
and honourable, to neglect a Providence which puts it in our power 
to succour an unfortunate neighbour, at tite same tifne weakenittg a 
dangei'ous enei)iy, than to allow that enemy to work out his own 
purposes?" In 1644, a short-lived treaty of amity and peace was 
arranged between Acadie and New England and ten years later the 
expedition intended by Cromwell for Quebec succeeded in expelling 
the French from St. John and Port Royal — with some help from 
Massachusetts. It was, in the land of the Lilies, a period of most 
deplorable complication, and it has been said that the trappers and 
hunters in the forests of Acadie during these years recognized at 
intervals as their Sovereign the Lord Protector of England, the future 
King Charles IL, and Louis XIV., of France— sometimes all three ! 

As yet, however, the hostility between the Colonists of England 
and those of France had not reached the stage of almost savage 
bitterness which toward the end of the century began to characterize 
it and was so greatly intensified, if not primarily caused, by the 
merciless warfare with the Indians. In 1664, New Netherlands had 
been taken by the British from the Dutch and the city which the 
latter had founded re-christened as New York. La Salle and Father 
Hennepin had explored the Mississippi region and given the French 
strong claims to the vast territory reaching down through the heart 
of the continent. Meanwhile, both nations and both classes of Colonists 
were trying to obtain and retain the alliance of the Indians and to 
maintain their supremacy in the great fur-trade of the interior. At 
this time, also, it must be remembered, the French power vastly 



THE FREXCH AND ENGLISH WARS 113 

overshadowed the English in America and included under the sway of 
Louis XIV. most of the Hudson's Bay country, Acadie, Canada 
proper, or New France as it was usually designated in a phrase 
which contracted and expanded a good deal from time to time, much 
of Maine, portions of Vermont and New York and the whole valley 
of the Mississippi. Little wonder therefore that the New Eng- 
landers dreaded the further expansion of those whom they looked 
upon as hereditary', if not natural, enemies. 

FRANCE DECL.\RES WAR UPON WILLIAM III. 

The chronic French war with the Iroquois — which reached acute 
stages from 1633 to 1645, from 1652 to 1654, and from 1661 to 1666 
— -was again stirred up in 1687 by the differences of the Marquis de 
Denonville of New France with Governor Dongan of New York. It 
reached a white-heat in 16S9 when France declared war upon William 
III. of England and it lasted with fluctuating intensity until 1700. 
The French-Canadian population at this time numbered about 1 1,000; 
that of the English Colonies was over 200,000. Both sides prepared 
for action and both sides sought Indian aid. From France came 
Louis de Buade, Comte de Frontenac, a man who in energy, resource 
and determination was an army in himself. From 1689 to 1698 he 
acted as Governor of New France and carried matters with as high 
a hand as poverty of men and armament and troublous controversies 
within his own realm would permit. By his instructions from the 
King the Hudson's Bay territory was to be at once invaded and the 
Province of New York over-run. In the former case success came as 
a result of the brilliance and dash of Iberville Le Moyne. Mean- 
while, the Iroquois had glided in their light canoes down the St. 
Lawrence, ravaged its shores and reached the very gates of Montreal. 
On the other hand the Abenaquis took the part of the French and 
struck terror by their raids along much of the New England border. 

7 



114 THE FRENCH AXD ENGLISH WARS 

During; the succeeding winter of 1689-90 Frontenac despatched 
three expeditions of French troops, assisted by various Indian allies, 
into the heart of New York. Schenectady and the other positions 
aimed at were captured, and much of the country ravaged by these 
intrepid but merciless bodies of men. They had marched hundreds 
of miles through snow and ice into the centre of a hostile territory 
and the result illustrated once more the power of a great mind at the 
head of affairs in a time of peril. Frontenac simply compelled suc- 
cess and, with proper support from France at this and other junctures, 
might have changed the history of North America and of the world. 
This particular incident was, however, only a raiding incursion, and 
when Frontenac wanted to really invade New York in the following 
year, King Louis could not spare the troops and the Quebec garrison 
of a few hundred men was necessarily insufificient. If, however, 
Frontenac was unable to take the offensive the men of Massachusetts 
were, and an expedition was fitted out under Sir William Phipps 
which speedily over-ran Acadie, destroyed Port Royal and annexed 
the country to his own Province. Frontenac retorted by worrj'ing 
and harassino;^ the frontiers of the Eno-lish Colonies and was soon 
able to again take possession of his much-harried Atlantic country. 

Meantime, William III. was being urged to take an active 
interest in the American struggle but, like King Louis, was much 
too busy in Europe. New York and Connecticut, therefore, under- 
took to supply a force for the over-land invasion of New France and 
the capture of Montreal, while Massachusetts got together a fleet of 
35 vessels with 44 guns and 2000 men for the siege of Quebec by. 
sea. The command of the latter armament was given to Sir William 
Phipps — a Colonist of wealth, rank and romantic experiences in the 
vivid life of that time who had already distinguished himself in 
aggressive work. Owing, however, to miscalculation as to the sea- 
son, various unexpected delays, and some repulses on land from the 



THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH WARS iig 

French, the fleet eventually had to return home without accomplish- 
ing anything — despite the quaint remark of Cotton Mather that, 
during its absence, "the wheel of prayer in New England has been 
continually going round." At the same time the land force, under 
General Winthrop, had to retreat from the banks of Lake George 
where it had delayed further advance until hearing something of 
Phipps. The latter was then sent to England for assistance and the 
making of some arrangements about Provincial charters. He returned 
with the promise of ships and his appointment as Governor of the 
United Provinces of Massachusetts, Maine, Plymouth and Nova 
Scotia ; while Frontenac received word about the same time that 
King Louis would have sent a fleet to attack the English Colonies 
had his means permitted. 

In 1693, the British fleet sailed, as promised, under command of 
Sir Francis Wheeler, but on Its way disease broke out and over 3000 
sailors and soldiers died. Eventually, the Admiral and his ships 
returned without doing anything. During the next three years the 
French Governor-General succeeded in checking^ and chastlslnsf the 
Iroquois and rebuilding Fort Frontenac, which had been previously 
destroyed by the Colonial forces. He then planned a regular cam- 
paign and it was opened by Iberville le Moyne with the capture and 
destruction of the Fort at Pemaquid, on the Bay of Fundy — perhaps 
the strongest possessed by the English Colonies in all North America, 
He then captured St. John's, Newfoundland, and with a few hundred 
men over-ran the Island. From thence he departed to the far Hud- 
son's Bay territory, and in a short time had taken the principal forts, 
subdued nearly the whole of the country with a mere handful of men 
— of course the English population was Itself very .scattered and 
small — and returned laden with booty in furs and peltries and with a 
well-deserved reputation for skill and valour. Later on, in a second 
expedition to the same northern regions, he encountered two English 



Ii6 THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH WARS 

ships at anchor upon the inner shores of the Bay, lured the men 
into an anihuscade on land and destroyed the vessels. 

But the entl of the prolonged war had come for the moment 
and, by the Treaty of Ryswick in 1697, each nation returned to the 
other the places or territory it had captured. William III. had made 
his mark in Europe and had weakened the immense power of Louis 
the Great. In America, after a struggle e.xtending up the Mississippi, 
around the shores of the Great Lakes, into the ice-bound regions of 
the north, and along the stormy shores of Newfoundland, matters 
were again demitted to their former condition. No peace made in 
Europe, however, could hold good amidst the conditions prevalent in 
America. The two crreat rivals were strivino- more and more strenu- 
ously with every passing year for supremacy in trade and for the con- 
trol of trade routes on the .St. Lawrence and the Hudson. To the 
French at Quebec, the natural policy and the one pursued by La 
Salle, by Frontenac and his great Intendant, Talon, by De Courcelles 
and by some of the later Governors, was to surround the English with 
a vast combination of French settlements and forts and to restrict their 
power and place to the small strip of soil on the Atlantic coast. At 
times, even more was hoped for, and Louis Xl\'. once gave instruc- 
tions for deporting the English at New York in much the same 
fashion as was afterwards actually applied to the French of Acadie. 
Upon the other hand the English policy was naturally one of coop- 
ing the French up in the valley of the St. Lawrence and thus check- 
ing their enterprising expansion north and south. In this aim the 
English Colonies, of course, were tremendously helped by the bitter 
hostility of the Iroquois to the French name and nationality, 

The Treaty of Ryswick only lasted five years and then the War 
of the Spanish Succession commenced, with England, Austria and 
Holland pitted against France and Spain. It was a glorious war 
for England though one of varied failures and successes in America. 



THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH WARS 117 

British victories at Blenheim, Oudenarde, Ramillies and Malplaquet 
rang through Europe Hke a long-sustained peal of thunder from 
a stormy sky, and the echo in North America indicated, at last, the 
Mne of ultimate success in the sreat strug-ale for a continent. At 
first, the war in the New World was the old story of petty raids, 
cruel surprises and Indian forays. Massachusetts' whale-boats har- 
assed the Acadian coasts ; a Boston fleet tried to capture Port Royal, 
but failed ; Hertel was sent by De Vaudreuil, the Governor of New 
France, with a mixed war-party of French and Indians and succeeded 
in surprising and destroying the inhabitants of the little English 
village of Haverhill, on the Merrimac ; schemes were laid for the 
invasion of New York, and rival preparations made for the conquest 
of New France ; the Iroquois played off one nationality against the 
other and profited by the enhanced antagonisms. 

AN AGGRESSIVE FRINGE OF BRITISH COLONIES 

Finally, in 1 709, Colonel Nicholson, an able English officer, 
organized an expedition of ships and Colonial troops for the capture 
of Quebec. When ready, however, the season was too far advanced 
and he led it to the coasts of Acadie, where for the last time Port 
Royal was taken and its name changed to Annapolis Royal. Acadie 
fell easily into his hands and, with the later appearance of fifteen men- 
of-war under Admiral Sir Hovenden Walker — bearingf a number 
of Marlborough's lighting regiments for the capture of the great 
French fortress on the St. Lawrence — it really seemed as if the knell 
of French power had rung in America. In the following spring 
Walker sailed from Boston for Quebec and Nicholson marched over- 
land to Lake Champlain. 

But the former proved an utterly incapable officer and leader 
and, after a series of mishaps and mistakes, left half his ships on the 
reefs of the St. Lawrence and carried the shreds of a one-time reputa- 
tion back to Engrland. Nicholson had to return in ragfe and disgust 



n8 THE FRESCH AND ENGLISH WARS 

to Boston while the churches of New France were filled with paeans 
of gratitude over this narrow and unexpected escape at a time of 
great internal weakness and distress. In three years peace came at 
Utrecht and, this time, England returned nothing and received much. 
Acadie, Newfounilland, the Hudson's Bay territory and St. Kittsinthe 
West Indies, were surrendered by France although Cape Breton — then 
known as Isle Royal — the Island of St. John (now Prince Edward 
Island) and other places in the Gulf at St. Lawrence were still retained. 

It was really the beginning of the end and, instead of restricting 
and hemmincr in the English settlements, New France was now met on 
the north, the east, and partly on the south, by an aggressive fringe 
of QTowine British Colonies. She still, however, held the gates of the 
two great waterways and the mighty inland seas of the continent firmly 
in her grasp and guarded the possibilities of the boundless west. The 
future seemed by no means hopeless. Hence the plots amongst the 
Acadians ; the buildintr of a strong fort at Niasrara and of a rival 
English one at Oswego ; the creation of the great fortifications at 
Louisbourg and the preparations to hold the mouth of the St. Law- 
rence against all comers and to recover Acadie ; the effort to colonize 
the far west and De la Verendrye's explorations in that direction ; 
the buildino- of a French fort at the head of Lake Champiain — the 
afterwards famous Crown Point. Peace in a sort of fashion lasted, 
however, until 1740, when the War of the Austrian Succession began 
and crave an opportunity to France and England to once more meet 
in deadly struggle. Nominally it was over the accession of Maria 
Theresa to the throne of Austria ; practically it was an effort by 
France and Spain to crush the external empire of England and sweep 
to the pit of destruction her growing commerce. The event materi- 
ally and immediately affected matters in America. 

The French Governor of Louisbourg, in Cape Breton, quickly 
decided to capture Annapolis, and for this purpose invaded Nova 



THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH WARS 119 

Scotia, took possession of minor settlements and laid siege to the 
English capital. For weeks he maintained his ground, but the com- 
mander, Paul Mascarene, was a vigorous and determined leader and 
the timely arrival of re-inforcements compelled the French to with- 
draw. In return for the courtesy of this attack Governor Shirley, of 
Massachusetts, organized an expedition of 4000 farmers and mer- 
chants, together with a small fleet, for the capture of Louisbourg — 
then one of the most powerful fortifications in the world and held by 
trained and experienced soldiers under Duchambou, an officer of good 
reputation. William Pepperell, a man of immense courage and 
resourceful ability, but with no military experience, was appointed to 
the command. After swift preparations and rapid movements, he 
reached Canso, a place not far from the fortress, with his expedition 
and was there joined by Commodore Warren with four English battle- 
ships. Early on the following morning the army of volunteers was 
in front of a place which a French officer had once declared could be 
held by an army of women against assault. 

Details of the siege which followed consist of incidents of steady 
and brave attack, of ceaseless cannonading and the continuous repulse 
of the garrison's sorties, of final assault and victory. The surrender was 
the occasion of wild acclaim and rejoicing throughout New England, of 
utter dismay in New France, of determinations at Paris to regain the all- 
important place. Two great fleets were despatched for this purpose. 
One, of thirty-nine men-of-war, met with almost countless misfortunes 
and had to return with only a remnant of ships and men. The other, in 
I 747, was met off Cape Finisterre, in the Bay of Biscay, and was utterly 
annihilated by Admiral Anson. In the succeeding year peace was form- 
ally made at Aix-la-Chapelle, and France, which had upon the whole 
been successful in Europe and had won from England the rich plains 
of Madras, was able to recover Louisbourg in e.xchange for Its Indian 
conquest — to the intense chagrin of New England and New York, 



I20 THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH WARS 

The peace, however, was only nominal. The boundaries of 
Nova Scotia formed an easy and continuous subject of dispute in 
America, whilst Clive and Dupleix kept up an open war in India, 
with ultimate victory to the former. De la Gallissoniere was now 
Governor-General on the banks of the St. Lawrence and all his 
activity and skill were devoted to the strengthening of French power. 
He claimed New Brunswick and Eastern Maine as French-Canadian 
territory, maintained forts along the frontiers of the Nova Scotian 
peninsula, marked a boundary line down the valley of the Ohio, and 
restricted English trade in all this immense region. The English, 
meanwhile, founded Halifax, brought out settlers to Nova Scotia, 
expelled the bulk of the Acadians for intriguing with the French 
authorities at Quebec, and captured Fort Beausejour on the border 
of the Province. 

FIGHTING IN" THE FORESTS 

Duquesne, who succeeded De la Gallissoniere, pushed the claims 
and power of France in the west with equal vigour. After the failure 
of a Joint Commission which sat in Paris to try and determine the 
boundaries of the Ohio region, he built several new forts and 
strengthened the old ones, meanwhile winning the alliance of many 
tribes of Western Indians. To meet this aggressive policy, the 
Colonists south of Nova Scotia sent a notable protest by a youth 
named George Washington. He was courteously received but did 
not obtain satisfaction or practical result. Then they organized the 
Ohio Company for the purpose of trading in the disputed country — 
with or without leave — and built a fort at the junction of the 
Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers. A French expedition promptly 
destroyed it and erected a stronger one which was named after the 
Governor at Quebec. Governor Dinwiddle of X'irginia, with equal 
promptitude, at once sent a force under Washington to drive out the 
French. It was met by a small contingent which was cut to pieces. 



THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH WARS 121 

but the whole expedition was shortly afterwards surrounded by the 
enemy in such numbers as to force surrender of the temporary 
intrenchments thrown up by Washington. The latter was allowed, 
however, to retire with his men and to return home with all the 
honours of war. Fort Duquesne was still safe in the hands of 
France. 

In 1754, two English regiments were sent out under General 
Braddock, while France despatched a larger force under Baron 
Dieskau, at the urgent request of the Marquis de Vaudreuil, who was 
now Governor-General at Quebec. Both Powers protested against the 
thought of war, while Braddock proceeded to plan the reduction of 
Forts Duquesne, Crown Point, and Niagara. During the following 
summer he led an expedition of 2,000 soldiers and Colonial militia 
through the forests of the west toward Duquesne. In the defiles of 
the Monongahela valley, however, his force was surprised by ambushed 
Indians and a force of 200 Frenchmen, who, unseen and unharmed 
by answering bullets, poured down an appalling storm of shot upon 
the helpless troops. Braddock was killed, Washington had two 
horses shot under him and his clothes riddled with bullets and, finally, 
some 600 shamed and beaten troops escaped from the scene of disaster. 
An expedition projected by Governor Shirley against Niagara was at 
once abandoned, though Colonel Johnson of Indian fame gathered a 
force of Mohawk warriors and Colonial volunteers and advanced 
toward Crown Point. Baron Dieskau, with his French troops, 
encountered the invaders at Lake Georo-e, fourteen miles from Fort 
Edward — a new English fortification on the Hudson. 

The impetuous French leader dashed his men against the 
temporary barricade of logs and English guns which barred the way, 
but in vain, and, after being himself severely wounded and captured, 
the repulse became an utter rout. Thus, within a few years, two 
European commanders of different nations, had been defeated 



122 THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH WARS 

through refusal to understand or accept the peculiar conditions .of 
American warfare. Johnson had, of course, retained his position and, 
without advancing further he proceeded to mark the victory by 
establishing a strong post which he called Fort William Henrj'. He 
was afterwards made a baronet and lived to impress his name deeply 
upon subsequent English relations with the Indian tribes. 

At the close of the year 1755, therefore, and at the beginning of 
the Seven Year's War in Europe the French were triumphant in the 
west, beaten back in Acadie and checked on Lake George. In the 
final struggle for supremacy which now began, England had Frederick 
the Great of Prussia as an ally, and France, Russia, Austria and 
many minor States as antagonists. Out of this conflict she came 
gloriously triumphant. On the plains of Hindustan and throughout 
the wilds of America, her flag floated in final victory ; whilst the tire- 
less Frederick maintained his grim and memorable contest in Europe. 
But the first years of the war in America were not very bright. 
Braddock's defeat had left the borders of more than one English 
Colony open and subject to relentless Indian raids. Local trouble 
and constitutional disputes — prophetic of a not distant future — came 
to a head in some of the Provinces and Pennsylvania, while squab- 
I)ling with its Governor, refused to protect its own frontier. France, 
meanwhile, had scored instant and early success by sending out the 
gallant Marquis de Montcalm to command its forces ; England did 
the reverse by dispatching the Earl of Loudoun and General Aber- 
crombie. The French leader and Governor had not more than 
reached Quebec, in 1755, before he began operations by capturing 
and destroying Fort Oswego — the English base for a projected 
attack on Niagara. Then he hastened up to Lake Champlain and 
entrenched himself in Fort Ticonderoga. By these rapid moves he 
secured the west for the moment and fastened the gates of entrance 
to the region afterwards known as Lower Canada, or Quebec. 



THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH WARS 123 

Meantime, Lord Loudoun talked and did nothing. In 1757, how- 
ever, he started for HaHfax on the way to attack Louisbourg but, unlike 
the gallant Pepperell in a previous campaign, he wasted months of 
precious time in spectacular preparations — until the place itself was 
strongly re-inforced and twenty-two men-of-war were guarding the 
entrance to its harbour. Seeing Loudoun hundreds of miles away, 
where he was comparatively harmless, in his game of playing at war, 
Montcalm promptly sallied out of Ticonderoga and laid siege to Fort 
William Henry, with some 6000 men. Owing to the cowardice of 
the English commander at neighbouring Fort Edward, who had 3600 
men under him, the garrison was ultimately compelled to surrender 
upon a pledge of safety against the Indians and with the right of 
marching unarmed to the nearby British post. But Montcalm was 
unable to bind his savage allies and, to his lasting sorrow, the glades 
of the forest suddenly rang with the Indian war-whoop and the soil 
soon ran red with the blood of English men, women and children. 
Short of calling out his own troops to shoot down the Indians, 
Montcalm and his officers did everything that men could do to check 
the slaughter; but the Commander's failure to defend his helpless pris- 
oners with his whole force remains a stain upon an otherwise noble 
character and career. 

END OF THE HISTORIC STRUGGLE 

The end, however, of the whole historic struggle was now at 
hand. External as well as internal events controlled the result and 
perhaps the chief of the former was the accession of William Pitt to 
power in England at this moment of greatest triumph to the French 
in America. Almost in an instant the change came. Pitt, like all 
great rulers, or statesmen, recognized that the success of a war, a cam- 
paign, or a battle, frequently depends upon the men who lead rather 
than upon the soldiers themselves — important as the latter must always 
be in character and stamina. General Sir Jeffrey (afterward Field 



124 THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH WARS 

Marshal Lord) Amherst, a skillful and cautious officer of much 
experience, Major-General James Wolfe, a dashing and enthusiastic 
soldier who had already won the keen appreciation of the Great 
Commoner, and Admiral Boscawen, a brave and experienced sailor, 
were despatched in i 758 with an army and fleet to reduce Louisbourg 
and capture Quebec. 

Within the walls of the great arsenal of strength on Cape Breton 
now centered much of French power 2,x\A prestige in the New World. 
Four thousand citizens lived behind its mighty ramparts and 3000 
re<yular troops guarded what was now supposed to be an impregnable 
position. The attempt to take it was made, however, with a degree of 
dash and military and naval skill which m.arked the selections made by 
Pitt as an actual stroke of genius. Pepperell's original plan was to 
some extent followed by Amherst and, after a heavy siege during 
which occurred a constant interchange of courtesies between the 
leaders as well as the free exchange of shot and shell, the gallant 
Chevalier de Drucour was finally compelled to surrender the surviving 
half of his garrison and the still frowning walls of his fortress. With 
the surrender went all Cape Breton and Prince Edward Island, while 
the oreat fortalice itself was levelled to the ground after months of 
labour. So well was the work of destruction done that, to-day. grass 
grows plentifully over the almost vanished line of earthworks, and 
the erstwhile scene of war and tumult and roaring cannon has become 
one of quiet pastoral peace and beauty. 

The garrison w^as sent to England as prisoners of war and 
Amherst, through the prolongation of the siege, was compelled to 
defer afo-ressive action a^rainst Quebec until the next season. Mean- 

tots o --^ 

time, in the w^est, Abercrombie had hurled 15,000 men against 
Montcalm in Ticonderoga, but the breastwork of stakes and logs and 
trees proved invulnerable even to the claymores of the Highlanders 
and the dosreed obstinacv of English charges. After leaving 2000 



THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH WARS 125 

dead In front of the enemy the English general retired again to Fort 
William Henry. 

Elsewhere, Bradstreet was more successful and, with a force of 
Colonial militia, crossed Lake Ontario and surprised and captured 
Fort Frontenac, with its rich stores and a number of French lake 
vessels. A little later, in November, 1758, General Forbes compelled 
the surrender of Fort Duquesne and, in its place, erected Fort Pitt — 
the famous Pittsburg of a very different scene and era. And now the 
final act of this great drama of moving war was to come on the stage 
of destiny. In the spring three English expeditions were organized. 
General Prideaux and Sir William Johnson advanced upon and 
captured Fort Niagara and defeated the French relieving force. 
General Amherst marched to Lake George, forced the French to 
blow up Ticonderoga and retreat upon Crown Point whence, through 
their ships, they still maintained supremacy on Lake Champlain. 
The English commander spent the summer in building ships to meet 
his enemy with — a sure but slow method of capturing victory which 
gave much pleasure to the active mind of the lately beleaguered 
Montcalm. 

WOLFE AND MONTCALM 

Wolfe and Montcalm, meanwhile, were preparing for their face 
to face and final struggle. The former's army before Quebec consisted 
of some gooo carefully selected troops, with Moncton, Townshend 
and Murray as Brigadiers-General and with the co-operation of a 
strongr fleet under Admiral Saunders. Montcalm had about 15,000 
reeulars and a thousand Indians. It was a tremendous undertakinsf 
for the English commander. The frowning and apparently impreg- 
nable ramparts of Quebec, bristling over the great cliffs of the St. 
Lawrence, and crowded with the gallant soldiery of France under the 
skilled leadership of a great general, might well have proclaimed it 
an impossible one. Wolfe's plan, at first, was to tempt his opponent 



196 THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH WARS 

out to battle, and for this purpose he divided iiis forces and built 
various redoubts and fortified points from which he could harass the 
defenders with shot and shell and gradually batter down the walls of 
the city. And, thouijh not successful in drawing Montcalm from his 
stronghold, he did seriously weaken his outer defences. Meantime, 
however, the summer was passing and Wolfe knew something of the 
winter experiences of others who had attempted and failed in the 
same task. 

Spurred on b\- these and other considerations he made one 
desperate attack upon the Beauport lines, behind the trenches of which 
lay the serried masses of Montcalm. But it was useless and he with- 
drew after the loss of 500 of his men. Autumn came and hope grew 
hicrh in the hearts of the besiegfed. Wolfe was ill, food was grrowing- 
scarce, his men were becoming hopeless, the spirit of success seemed 
to have gone from the enterprise. Then came the forlorn hope and the 
secret advance up the Heights of Abraham. Discovery of the move- 
meant meant the annihilation of the English force ; success meant the 
facing of an army twice its size and in the best of health and spirits. 
But the plan succeeded and, as morning broke on the 13th of 
September, 1759, the British troops stood upon the Plains and faced 
at last the army of France. Charging at the head of his Grenadiers 
Wolfe was fatally wounded and died with the sounds of success ring- 
ing in his ear. In the rout which ensued Montcalm was also mortally 
wounded and died on the following day. On the 17th of September 
the Lilies of k'rance were hauled down from the great ramparts and 
the Standard of England and her Empire hoisted in their place. 

This was practically the end. De Levis succeeded to the French 
command and made a gallant effort to recover the lost ground. Upon 
the battlefield of St. Foje he defeated Murray, who had replaced 
Wolfe, and, had the expected French tleet arrived with re-inforce- 
ments before the English, might have put a different face upon 



THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH WARS I27 

affairs. But the reverse was the case and he fell back upon Montreal. 
In September, 1760, De Levis there found himself hemmed in by 
17,000 British troops and, in the ensuing capitulation, De Vaudreuil, 
as the last Governor-General of New France, surrendered the whole 
country. The Treaty of Paris, on loth February, 1763, closed the 
struggle of centuries, and by it a continent practically passed into the 
hands of England. Spain gave up Florida, and France surrendered 
everything in America except Louisiana, (which a little later she ceded 
to Spain), the Islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon and certain fishing 
privileges in Newfoundland. England was thus made mistress of the 
western world of North America at the moment she had become 
the dominant Power in the old eastern lands of Hindustan. 

The American struggle had been a peculiar one. The civilized 
races engaged in it were alike brave and neither was naturally cruel. 
Yet, through their Indian alliances, the conflict had been often 
marked by uncivilized and barbaric actions. New France had been 
greatly hampered by indifference at home and, in later years, by the 
criminal corruption of its officials and general misgovernment — a 
situation which all the skill and force and honesty of Montcalm could 
not overcome or even greatly modify. The whole system of French 
Canada in the last half century of its existence had been steeped in 
corruption and charged with the weakness of certain disintegration. 
Still, with all the faults of their leaders, and despite these fatal diffi- 
culties, it had been a gallant and brilliant exploit for 60,000 French- 
men — all that there were in New France at the close of the regime — 
to face an ever-increasing volume of English population and to hold, 
for over a century, the vast territory they had so well defended against 
Iroquois savages as well as English enemies. 

Of course, the latter had their own troubles and, if their popula- 
tion in 1759 numbered a million and a quarter soul?, it was none the 
less a divided and scattered people, with many indications of the 



128 THE FRENCH ASD ENGLISH WARS 

coming stress of internal storm and revolution. The end of the 
international duel, as fousfht around the walls of Quebec, was a g^lorious 
one, as had been a myriad instances of individual heroism and col- 
lective conflict during iis progress. Beside it, now, all other contests 
of the time seem dwarfed in the immensity of the issues involved 
and in the vast field over which the contestants fought. In its result 
this war of a century and a half paved the way for the establishment 
of the Dominion of Canada as the American bulwark of the British 
Empire and of the United States as one of the great Powers of the 
modern world. 



CHAPTER VI 
Colonial Rivalry and Revolution 

JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL has said that the British con- 
quest of Canada made the United States possible. It cer- 
tainly removed from the Thirteen Colonies the northern 
shadow of military force and racial hostility which had so long 
menaced their homes and hampered their commercial progress and 
territorial expansion. It averted the possibility of France some day 
waking up to the real greatness of her position in North America, 
and so strengfthening' her continental resources as to enable the 
almost impregnable heights of Quebec to dominate the future of a 
large part of America and control the development of a powerful 
French state reaching down into the heart of the continent, and per- 
haps in time joining hands with Spain in Florida and Louisiana. It 
increased the growing spirit of independence amongst the English 
colonists and the feeling that they could do without British troops 
and British protection should occasion arise. 

IMPORT OF ENGLISH CONQUEST OF CANADA 

The victory of Wolfe at Quebec, therefore, which gave nearly 
a whole continent to Great Britain, really contributed in an in- 
direct way to the loss of the Thirteen Colonies. The bonfires 
which then illumined the coasts and settlements of New Engrland 
and lit the market places of New York and Philadelphia with the 
light of a great rejoicing were the last of their kind in American 
history and, in the capture of the army of Cornwallis at Saratoga, 
France obtained her revenue for the defeat of Montcalm on the 



Heights of Quebec. 



129 



»36 COLOM.ll. h'lVAI.NY AND REVOLUTION 

With the close of tlic prolonged war against France in America, 
of which the Seven Years' War in Europe was really an incident so 
far as England was concerned, the English Colonies began to develop 
grievances and discover difficulties in their relations with the Mother- 
land. Had a spirit of consideration prevailed on either hand, had 
the Mother-country known more of conditions in the Colonies, or 
had the latter felt the loyalty towards the Crown which the Colonies 
in another century have felt, the Revolution would never have taken 
place. But it is usually forgotten that the people of these regions 
were, with certain exceptions, not monarchical in their convictions, 
nor particularly kindly in sentiment toward the institutions of the 
Mother-land. 

THE CLASSES RE^^AINEn LOYAL 

The classes were so, and the classes remained loyal to the end 
and became the bone and sinew of the English-speaking population 
of early Canada and Acadie. The masses, however, had originally 
been largely composed of emigrants who had left their country for 
various reasons of extreme discontent — • such as the Quakers of 
Pennsylvania and the Puritans of New England — and had brought 
with them an innate republican spirit and a certain contempt for 
the forms of government under which they had admittedly suffered 
much. It only required the increased self-confidence of a pioneer 
life, and the friction of unpleasant controversies, to prove as tinder to 
the torch of agitation and as fire to the rumble of rebellion. Yet it 
must be said that, with all this ready material and with the now 
admitted grievances of the Colonists; with the Stamp Act and the taxa- 
tion without representation question ; with all the arrogance of Brit- 
ish officers and the incapacity of British generals and statesmen ; 
there was not in 1775 a clear majority in favour of actual war. A 
strong minority was opposed to it, while another section may be 
classed as indifferent ; and there were manv times, even after the 



COLONIAL RIVALRY ANI^ RFA'OLUTIQN 131 

Declaration of Independence, when skilled statecraft and good gen- 
eralship combined on the part of the British might have turned the 
rebels into a really small minority of the population. But many of 
the latter had strong convictions, a great leader in the person of 
Washington, and all the influences of such fire-brand oratory as 
that of Patrick Henry, the slave-holder of the South, when he cried 
to the heavens above him : " Give me liberty or give me death ! " 

However, the Revolution came, and with it results of the most 
important character to the great Province of Quebec, which had been 
recently expanded and re-organized by the Quebec Act of 1774. By 
this measure the limits of the Province had been extended to cover 
French settlers and settlements along the shores of the Great Lakes, 
between Lake Erie and the Ohio River, and from there and Lake 
Michigan to the Mississippi, as well as north to the Red River and 
Lake Winnipeg in the present Province of Manitoba. This policy 
provoked strong protests from the now disaffected English Colonies 
as did that part of the Act which provided for freedom of worship 
amongst the French-Canadian Catholics. By no means the smallest 
of the grievances alleged by the Continental Congress of 1774 was 
this establishment of a Roman Catholic Province to the north and its 
extension southwards. 

The extreme Protestantism of New England was up in arms and 
the resentful rivalry resulting from a century of fitful war with the 
French alono- the St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes was stirred into 
a storm which found expression in the course of an Address to the 
people of England passed by the Congress at Philadelphia on Sep- 
tember 5, 1774. After references to the arbitrary rule from which the 
French-Canadians were said to suffer — and which was absolute 
license in comparison to the liberty accorded them by France — the 
protest read as follows : " Nor can we suppress our astonishment that 
a British Parliament should ever consent to establish in that country 



132 COLONIAL KIVALRY A.\D KEVOLVTIOS 

a reliction that lias deluged your island with blood and dispersed 
impiety, bigotry, persecution, murder and rebellion through every 
part of the world." 

It was natural, therefore, in view of hereditary hostility and 
religious antagonism, that the call to arms in the following year 
should have found the I'Vench of both Oueb.ec and Acadie indifferent 
to the issue. The new Continental C(jngress did its best to counter- 
act the effect of the preceding religious denunciations, and printed 
an appeal to the people of Quebec to join with them in opposing 
British " tyranny " and in establishing the principles of true liberty 
throughout the continent. This document and other inflammatory 
literature was translated into French and largely circulated amongst 
the habitants; just as every species of revolutionary argument, and 
the anti-British ebullitions of unscrupulous demagogues like Thomas 
Paine had been permitted free and practically unanswered circulation 
throughout the Thirteen Colonies. 

WASHINGTON APPEALS TO FRENCH-CANADIANS 

On September 25, 1775, George Washington signed and issued a 
special appeal to the French-Canadians based upon similar lines of 
thought to that of Congress. This document, which seems in historic 
retrospect to have been unworthy of the usually dignified democracy 
of the American leader, dwelt upon the struggles of "the free-born sons 
of America ;" the blessings of liberty and wretchedness of slavery ; the 
"poverty of soul and baseness of spirit" in tliose who would oppose 
what had not yet risen out of the sphere of rebellion into that of 
revolution; the "cruel and perfidious schemes which would deluge 
our frontiers with the blood of women and children ; " the " tools of 
despotism " in England and " the slavery, corruption and arbitrary 
dominion ' which would follow if the Mother-land of his own race 
should prevail in the coming struggle. 



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COLOXr.lL RIVALRY AND REVOLUTION 135 

Such arguments need no critical consideration in these later days, 
but their continued iteration naturally had some effect upon Frenchmen 
who for centuries, at home and in the Colony, had been enemies of the 
England now so harshly denounced by her own sons. Fortunately, 
however, the Government of Quebec was in the hands of one of those 
men who fully deserve the designation of great and who prove the 
possession of characteristics and abilities which long-after generations 
mark with appreciation and admiration. Had General Sir Guy 
Carleton been sfiven a free hand in the Enoflish Colonies he would 
probably have averted the arbitrament of war. Had he been given 
command in place of Sir William Howe he would in all human prob- 
ability have suppressed the rebellion and captured Washington in the 
winter of his discontentment and wretchedness at Valley Forge. But 
destiny had other ends in view and this was not to be. Even as it 
was Carleton found himself hampered from time to time by the con- 
stant unfriendliness of the incapable Colonial Secretary — Lord 
George Germaine, afterwards Lord Sackville — and was eventually 
succeeded for a brief period by the showy and unfortunate Bur- 
goyne. From 1768 to 1778, however, he was Governor-General and in 
command of a few troops maintained in Quebec* To his energy and 
capability during this period is due the fact that Canada is to-day a 
country in itself and its people a British nation. Surprising as it may 
seem, Carleton had only a few hundred regulars under his command 
when the discontent in the Thirteen Colonies had developed into 
denunciation and their riots into revolution. And, when he sent to 
Sir William Howe for help in i 775 that officer was unable to forward 
troops because Admiral Graves would not supply the ships for trans- 
port — not an uncommon illustration of the mismanagement and inca- 
pacity which prevailed. 

* New France became ofiicially the Province nf Quebec in 1763, and after the division of lyqi became known as 
Lower Canada. 



136 COLONIAL RIVALRY A.\'D REVOLUTION 

The Quebec Governor could depend upon little aid locally. The 
English settlers were a mere handful and were naturally dissatisfied 
witli the Quebec Act. The French Canadians were, at the best, 
neutral, and in many places threatened active hostility owing to the 
■false statements of alien agitators. Yet the first act of the latter 
under successful conditions would have been to abolish the French 
religious privileges and immunities of which the British Government 
had been the grantor and was now the guardian. 

CARLETON SAVES THE COUNTRY TO ENGLAND 

War had now come again upon the continent which had seen so 
much of strife, and this time it was a struggle which should never 
have occurred. George III. and his Parliament had drifted from the 
mere assertion of a right to tax the Colonists into an attempt to 
enforce that right, and the attempt was made without vigour, without 
knowledge, without continuity of effort, without organization. The 
Colonists, themselves, had drifted out of discontented dependence 
upon Great Britain into a shadowy alliance and thence into practical 
independence. It was not the Colonial independence of to-day, based 
upon loyalty as well as liberty, and which seeks for means of closer 
union with the iNIothcr-land, but it was an independence founded 
upon suspicion, regarding Imperial unity as subjection and British 
institutions as a form of tyranny. Canada, or the northern British 
possessions, had also been compelled to drift along without adequate 
forces for defence and only in Carleton's Quebec Act, in his policy of 
conciliatine the French, and in his strenuous efforts to obtain more 
troops, had any statecraft been shown. Then the fight at Lexington 
took place, on April 19, 1775, that of Bunker Hill occurred two 
months later, the capture by Ethan Allen of the forts of Ticonderoga 
and Crown Point followed, and out of the general policy of drift had 
come the usual result of disaster. 



COLONIAL RIVALRY AND REVOLUTION 137 

The opening of the historic war-path into Quebec commenced in 
the fall of the forts just mentioned ; it was followed with the invasion 
of that country by General Montgomery at the head of 3,000 men 
and Colonel Benedict Arnold with 1,200 more. The advance was, at 
first, eminently successful and the American troops forced their way 
across the Richelieu, took St. John's and Chambly and compelled the 
Governor-General, with his small armed force, to leave Montreal at 
their mercy, and to retreat upon Quebec. There he displayed con- 
summate skill, weeded out and expelled the rebel sympathizers, enrolled 
several hundred loyal volunteers and, finally, with 1,600 men-at-arms 
awaited the American assault. Meantime, from different directions 
and through wintry wilds and varied difficulties, Montgomery and 
Arnold converged upon Quebec where, towards the end of November, 
they demanded the surrender of the city which was now the last spot 
in the Province where waved the British flag. But to this and other 
communications no reply was given. General Carleton had old- 
fashioned principles, and would have no intercourse whatever with 
men whom he considered rebels and nothing more. The invaders 
were greatly disappointed. They had not been able to obtain the 
active support of more than a handful of the French-Canadians while, by 
the payment of worthless paper money for supplies and a general 
indifference to the religious convictions of the populace, they had 
estranged most of the sympathy previously gained. Even General 
Washington's appeal to them as " friends and brethren " had by now 
failed of its effect. The French settlers, after all, had had enough of 
fighting, and neither appeals to love of liberty or to racial antagonism 
on the one hand, nor pressure by Clergy and Seigneurs on the other, 
would stir them from a practically general neutrality. 

The intense cold of a Quebec winter was also added to the 
difficulties of the American commander as well as the certain prospect 
of a British relief fleet arriving in the spring. Choosing the speediest 



138 COLONIAL RlVALI^y AXD REVOLUTION 

apparent solution of an evil situation a desperate assault was decided 
upon and, amid the thick darkness of a stormy night, on the 31st of 
December, 1775, the American troops attacked the frowning ramparts 
in two distinct columns. The force under Arnold fought its way 
into the city, but was ultimately driven back and 400 out of its 700 men 
were captured. Montgomery's troops were met by a deadly fire and the 
General himself was killed while leading his men to the assault. 
The latter, it may be added, has been much praised as an officer and 
a man, ?nd his death naturally inclines history to look favourably 
upon his memory. But a soldier, who, like Carleton himself, had 
served under Wolfe in other days, should have known better than 
attempt such a deed, brave as it undoubtedly was, and, as a man of 
presumed humanity, he should certainly have hesitated long before 
issuing a general order on December 15th, promising his soldiers the 
plunder of the city, in the following words : " The troops shall have 
the effects of the Governor, garrison, and of such as have been acting 
in misleading the inhabitants and distressing the friends of Liberty, 
to be equally divided amongst them." 

After this repulse, the enemy simply maintained a strict blockade 
until they were greatly cheered by the arrival of re-inforcements in the 
spring. Almost simultaneously, however, British ships arrived in the 
St. Lawrence and the Americans were forced to prepare for retreat. 
\\\ this movement Carleton followed them, captured their guns, and 
finally turned the retreat into a flight and utter rout. Shortly after- 
wards a small body of British regulars and Indians captured "The 
Cedars," a fort on the St. Lawrence, and, in June an American attack 
upon Three Rivers was repulsed by a small force of militia and regu- 
lar troops. Meanwhile, however, three Commissioners had been 
despatched by Congress on April 27, 1776, to try and counteract the 
exertions of Carleton amongst the people and to increase the hoped-for 
efificacy of Washington's Address. The duty entrusted to them was 



COLONIAL RIVALRY AXD REVOLUTION 139 

that of conciliating the French-Canadians, and for this purpose their 
personnel was certainly good. Benjam-n FrankHn, the most astute of 
American diplomatists, Chase, of Maryland, and Charles Carroll, a 
well-known Roman Catholic, made an excellent Commission. For a 
time they remained in Montreal and then, for their own safety, had 
to return home. British soldiers were now pouring into the Province, 
Montreal was evacuated, and soon the invaders were driven to the 
shores of Lake Champlain where, through the possession of a small 
fleet, they managed to hold their own until the autumn of 1776. 
Meantime, the British had also built a fleet and, after a hot fight, the 
American, or Continental, forces were driven from the lake and the 
ramparts of Crown Point blown up in their retreat. The inland gates 
of Quebec were thus once more in the strong- hands of Carleton. 

PROGRESS OP' THE REVOLUTION 

In New York, New England and elsewhere, the war continued 
to drag its weary and bitter course for years after this fruitless inva- 
sion. The hollowness of the claim made by many public men in the 
revolted Colonies that they only desired the right to rule themselves, 
under the Crown, had been shown in this aggressive campaign against 
Quebec, and it received a final seal and proof in the Declaration of 
Independence on July 4, 1776. Meanwhile, the British troops, out- 
side of Carleton's sphere of operations, had been doing little except 
to hold New York. A vigorous military policy in 1775 might have 
averted actual war by over-awing the riotous, encouraging the loyal, 
and forcing into consistent allegiance many who affected to favour 
union while really working for separation. General Gage, who was 
in command of the troops seems, however, to have been undecided 
and incapable to the point of a practical abdication of British autho- 
ity. In May, 1776, Generals Howe, Clinton and Burgoyne arrived 
on the scene with re-inforcements and the first-named took command. 
Sir William Howe was a brave, but self-indulgent, frivolous and 



140 COLONIAL RIVALRY AND REVOLUTION 

incapable officer. During the year which followed his arrival and as a 
result of circumstances which made things comparatively easy, he won 
possession of all New York and New Jersey, defeated Washington 
at the Brandywine and captured Philadelphia. 

Here the ball was at his feet. He had already made serious 
mistakes and delays which were deeply injurious to the Royal cause. 
But activity now might have been the fullest amends and have 
crushed the rebellion before the Burgoyne disaster strengthened 
the American spirit and the arrival of French troops added to the 
American military force. Washington, during this winter of 1776-7, 
was almost in despair. His small army was entrenched at Valley 
Forge in a fairly strong position, but one which Howe with his supe- 
rior force and more disciplined troops might have successfully stormed, 
or else surrounded and starved the defenders into submission. There 
was no army to relieve them or to draw the British general away. The 
prestige of the revolution was gone, the mass of the people was sick of 
civil strife, the situation was so gloomy that even while Howe was idling 
away the weeks and months at Philadelphia, Washington could get 
neither money, men, nor supplies. One brilliant stroke might have set- 
tled the issue so farasforceof arms could do it and time, with its possibili- 
ties of reviving statecraft and a more conciliator)'' spirit might perhaps 
have done the rest. But, instead of changing the destiny of empires 
and states, Howe preferred to spend this winter of vital opportunities 
and vast possibilities in the varied amusements of a gay military city. 
Meantime, the tide had turned for ever. Burgoyne, by favour of 
the unspeakable Germaine, was sent to indirectly supersede Sir Guy 
Carleton by leading an army of 8,000 men, despite the wise protests 
of the latter, from Lake Champlain down the Hudson to New York. 
• It is not necessary to tell here the story of the disastrous march which 
was ushered in by apparent successes such as the capture of Ticon- 
derocra and the defeat of one opposing army. Suffice it to say that 



COLOXIAL RIVALRY AND REVOLUriO.V 141 

the further Burgoyne penetrated into the enemy's country the more 
of them he had to encounter until, finally, surrounded at Saratoga by 
30,000 Continental troops his own small and depleted force was com- 
pelled to surrender. He had sworn in his vanity that British soldiers 
never retreat. History declares that his misplaced obstinacy, com- 
bined with Howe's inaction, ruined the Royal cause and crowned 
with success the republican armies and their able leaders. Immedi- 
ately upon hearing of this surrender and the evidence it afforded of 
possible American success, the Court of France accepted the over- 
tures which Franklin had been long pressing, and not only recognized 
the independence of the United States, but formed an alliance with 
its provisional Government and prepared for the war with Great 
Britain which necessarily followed. Spain shortly afterwards joined 
the fray by a declaration of war. Holland followed suit, owing to 
some commercial dispute, and the hour of the American Republic 
had come at last. 

In Canada, during the preceding period, Carleton had been 
firmly and faithfully holding his own. Many things had occurred 
which to his proud and confident spirit must have been more than 
painful, and it is not improbable that his recall in June, 177S, was in 
some sense a pleasure to him. Service under such a man as Ger- 
maine was galling beyond comparison to a Governor who was by 
nature both statesman and general. On October 2Sth of the same 
year, and before France had really plunged into the fray, the Baron 
D'Estaing, Commander of the French fleet in Atlantic waters, issued 
an appeal to the French-Canadians which touched their most secret 
sensibilities and might, under other conditions than those created by 
the Quebec Act and Carleton's administration, have had a most 
important effect. As it was no great harm was done. In this docu- 
ment, after addressing the people as " military companions of the 
Marquis de Levis," and describing them as having shared his glories 



142 COLONIAL RIVALRY A.\D REVOLUTION 

and admired his genius for war, the French Admiral went on to ask 
them whether they could now fight against their former leaders and 
arm themselves ag-ainst their own kinsmen. And he concluded a 
strong racial appeal by declaring, in the name of the King of France, 
" that all his former subjects in North America who shall no more 
acknowledge the supremacy of Great Britain may depend upon his 
protection and support." 

All these serious developments in Europe and America did not, 
however, disturb the pleasures and ostentatious gayetiesof the supine 
Howe, and he idled on at Philadelphia until the spring came and then 
suddenly resigned his post and returned to England. Sir llenry 
Clinton, a man of ability and energy, succeeded to the command and 
was at once ordered to evacuate the Quaker City. The time for 
really vital action had passed, Washington had once more got his 
troops into shape, and the assistance of France had changed the 
whole face of affairs and the spirit of the people. Clinton, how- 
ever, pushed the war with such vigour as was possible and seized 
Charleston, while Lord Cornwallis over-ran the Carolinas and 
Georgia and, by 17S1, had much of the South under control. 

Then came the great disaster at Yorktown. It was the result of 
French support to the Revolution, and, incidentally, was occasioned 
by the most miserable exhibition of incapacity seen even during this 
war. The evil genius of the military arm of Britain had been Howe 
and the evil genius of the naval arm was, in this case, the incapable 
Admiral Graves. The former had allowed Washington to slip from 
his grasp at Valley Forge ; the latter allowed the French fleet to slip 
in and take Cornwallis in the rear at Yorktown. On the 17th of 
October, 1781, after fighting against impossible numbers for two 
weeks, he was obliged to surrender. 

This practically ended the war. Lord George Germaine resigned 
his place in the Ministry at home after doing all the evil possible ; 




2 ^< 

o -^ 

a! " = 

2 -■-? 

o = 




COLONIAL RIVALRY AND REVOLUTION US 

Cornwallis returned to England and afterwards distinguished himself 
as Governor-General of India; Clinton retired from the chief com- 
mand in America and died in 1795 as Governor of Gibraltar; Sir 
Guy Carleton was sent out as Commander-in-Chief to supervise the 
evacuation of New York and to stamp upon the pages of history 
by that act a failure which might have been success had he sooner 
wielded the supreme power. 

THE TREATY OF PEACE 

On September 3, 1783, after prolonged negotiations at the Court 
of France, in which the British plenipotentiaries won the deserved 
condemnation of all students of diplomacy by their weak-kneed atti- 
tude of surrender and indifference, the Treaty of Versailles was duly 
signed. John Adams, Franklin and John Jay represented the United 
States, and their combined ability was enough for the most astute of 
the world's statesmen to have met successfully. As it was they had 
only to play with a puppet on the splendid page of diplomacy named 
Oswald — a weak, vain, ignorant man, without knowledge of Ameri- 
can affairs and, judging by his correspondence with Lord Shelburne, 
the Prime Minister, without care as to the maintenance of British 
honour toward the Loyalists in the war, or of British territorial inter- 
ests of any kind, so long as a treaty of peace was signed. His later 
colleague, Vaughan, was as bad as himself, and their successor, 
Strathy, came only in time to save Quebec and Acadie from being 
given away. King George's opposition to the terms of this Treaty 
and his sharp reproofs to Oswald should win the old monarch some- 
thing of modern Canadian sympathy and appreciation. 

Great Britain was not at this time by any means a wreck in either 
re'sources or public spirit. The union of the Powers against her had 
revived the national sentiment and, had a stern and vigorous states- 
man been at the head of affairs, the final result of the strugrale misfht 
have been very different and, certainly, would have been so as far as the 



146 COLONIAL LIIJLLY AXD I^EVOLUTION 

Ixiiindaries of the new Republic were concerned, llcr leaders, how- 
ever, had decided for peace and they went into the negotiations in 
no Iiiixtering sjjirit and with an evident hope of winning back Ameri- 
can friendship by open-handed generosity. FrankHn wanted the 
entire continent to be given up to the Thirteen Colonies and espe- 
cially demanded the handing over of Quebec and its ill-defined terri- 
tories. But this was too much even for Lord Shelburne, though 
Oswald declared himself quite willing and actually stated that he 
would use his influence to persuade his own Government to concede 
the claims of the American plenipotentiaries. Eventually, the whole 
of the rich Ohio valley and the southern part of what was then called 
Quebec, was handed over as a gift to the Republic and has since been 
carved into a number of the most prosperous States of the American 
Union — Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Alabama, 
Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. On the east the fatal blunder 
was made of defining the boundary as the St. Croix River and thus 
inserting a wedge of alien territory between the present Provinces of 
Quebec and Nova Scotia and depriving the Dominion of a winter 
seaport through the later concessions of Lord Ashburton — a worthy 
successor to Oswald and Vaughan. 

For a time peace now reigned, though it was a peace marred by 
bitter feeling in the States and by memories of sorrow and suffering 
amongst the Loyalists who had migrated to the British country 
which still remained at the north. Looking back now it is not hard 
to make excuses for the statesmen (as distinct from the diplomats) who 
threw so much of valuable territory away in order to please and 
placate a sentiment which even yet they did not understand — a dis- 
ruption the completeness and finality of which their successors had 
hardly grasped a hundred years afterwards. Nor is it difficult to see 
that the value of these regions was very little to the England of that 
day and, except from the sentimental standpoint of the Sovereign, 



COLONIAL RIVALRY AND RFA'OI.UTION 147 

hardly worth the tremendous liabilities which had been incurred antl 
the blood which had been shed. Very few men, great or little, are 
able to look a century ahead. Nor is it impossible, even while regret- 
ting the result for Canada's sake, to understand the feeling of many 
outside the United States who think that this gift of territory, and 
some of the later development of the Republic along military lines, 
was all for the best. 

The die was cast, however, and henceforth the history of the 
growing Republic and the future commonwealth, though running side 
by side in a geographical sense, is entirely diverse in the evolution of 
institutions, in the creations of constructive statesmanship and in 
popular sympathies. The story of that development to the south of 
the boundary line has a greater place in the world's canvas of events, 
or literature, but that to the north has also possessed much of inter- 
est, much of instruction, much of political shadow, much of national 
success. 



CHAPTER VII 

The Loyalist Pioneers 

THE United Empire Loyalists represent in continental annals 
the history of a lost cause and the foundation of a new 
commonwealth. In the former capacity popular ignominy has 
very largely been their lot in the pages of American history and 
sometimes at the undeserved hands of British publicists. In the 
latter capacity they have become enshrined in the records of self- 
sacrifice and toil and suffering which have eone into the making of 
Canada as they must go into the creation of anything worth having 
in this complex world of ours. 

THE I'l.ACE MELD KV THE AMERICAN LOYALISTS 

Yet to the impartial student of history, of the workings of national 
sentiment, of the hidden springs which mould the character and 
control the action of individuals at a great public crisis, the place 
held by the American Loyalists was as honourable and consistent in 
their own country as it afterwards became in the British land to the 
north. To understand their later position, as well as their migration, 
a few words must be said here regarding the cardinal principles which 
actuated their conduct and stamped their character. 

They were sincerely loyal to the King. The end of the 
eighteenth century was still a monarchical atre and the Sovereiirn was 
to the great mass of his subjects still an object of personal allegiance 
— even in a certain limited sense to the republican-minded Puritan. 
He had not become, and no one as yet dreamed of his becoming, a 
constitutional ruler in the modern sense ; an embodiment of the State 
and a sort of incarnation of the popular will. Even to-da\'. in the 
148 



THE LOYAfJST PfONHERS 149 

British Empire, it is a question if the factor of personal loyalty is not 
powerful enough to hold the Sovereign in her place should she choose 
to take what might be termed an arbitrary course. A century ago it 
was a matter of duty, of patriotism, to myriads of the King's subjects 
to condone actions which they disapproved at heart because of this 
sentiment which surrounded the throne of the realm and environed 
the royal person with something more than mere respect. 

PRINCIPLES, TRADITIONS AND GENERAL POSITIONS 

The spirit of the Cavaliers and soldiers, the gentry and the peas- 
ants, who alike rallied around the amiable weaknesses of Charles I., 
and the virtues and vices of Charles II., was still abroad in the 
American land and found its place amid the gentry of Virginia as it 
did amongst some of the sturdy sons of New England. To these 
men, and it must be remembered they were in the majority when 
the Revolution began, the name of the King still embodied fealty to 
the State as it certainly required loyalty to the flag and institutions of 
their fathers. In itself this loyalty was an admirable quality and 
one which proved its inherent strength in the privations and suffer- 
ings which came to those who held it ; 

"They counted neither cost nor danger, spurned 
Defections, treasons, spoils ; but feared God, 
Nor shamed of their allegiance to the King." 

Nor was King George and his cause altogether unworthy of this 
sentiment — apart from the principle of personal loyalty. There was 
enoug-h of g-reatness in the character of American leaders at this time, 
of justification in the complaints of Colonial politicians and the people, 
of excuse in the mistakes and ignorance of British administrators, to 
make it a matter of surprise that there has not been more 
magnanimity shown by the writers and speakers of the Republic to 
the honesty of purpose and purity of principle shown by this much- 
troubled monarch. It was the misfortune of George III. that 



ISO THE L O y.l L /.S T PIONEERS 

he represented a system of administration which the Thirteen 
Colonies had out-grown ; that he and his advisers had no precedents 
in Colonial self-government to guide them ; that his Ministers were 
often narrow and not very able men, and the one in charge of Colonial 
aflairs — Lord George Germaine — the most criminally incompetent, 
vain and selfish personage who ever held power at a critical juncture ; 
that the Liberal leaders of the time were seriously open to suspicion 
and Charles James Fox, at least, an acknowledged ally of the French 
enemies of England ; that the King's own periods of mental blindness 
made a continuous and efficient policy very difficult. 

Personally, these complications — to say nothing of a wild and 
wicked son who sought only means of hurting the King in heart and 
reputation — appear to deserve some sympathy rather than unstinted 
condemnation. It was to the King's credit, also, that he never 
swerved in his desire and intention to hold the Empire intact — as it 
was his bounden duty to do ; that in this policy his Parliament, by a 
great majority, was with him ; that the mass of the English people 
was devoted to him and those who knew him best were amongst 
his warmest admirers; that when he wrote to Lord North on June 
13, 1781 : "We have the greatest objects to make us zealous in our 
pursuit for we are contending for our whole consequence, whether 
we are to rank amongst the great Powers or be reduced to one of 
the least considerable," he voiced the sentiment of every ruler who feels 
the sense of duty to his country and people ; that though he naturally did 
not understand, any more than did the Colonists themselves, the modern 
principle of constitutional Parliaments in distant countries administered 
by a representative of the Crown, he j'et was willing to offer seats in 
the Imperial Parliament to Colonial delegates and to repeal the not alto- 
gether unjust Stamp Act as soon as he found that the people would 
not submit to even that measure of taxation in return for the immense 
indebtedness incurred bv Enolaml in their defence asfainst France. 



THE LOYALIST nONEERS 151 

When we look closely and calmly at this picture of the King 
struggling- against incompetent Ministers and politicians who cared 
more for parties than for empire, facing unavoidable periods of per- 
sonal aberration, battling with foreign enemies who soon included 
France and Spain and Holland, as well as the revolted Colonies, 
it is impossible not to feel that George III., with all his mistakes 
and limited abilities, was as truly patriotic in his opposition to the 
Revolution as Lincoln was in his antagonism to a later Rebellion. 
History, when separated from the influences of national and perhaps 
natural hostility, will eventually throw a chaplet of credit upon the 
memory of the monarch who lived so sad a life and fought a losing 
struggle in the spirit of his letter to Lord North on November 3, i 781: 
" I feel the justice of our cause ; I put the greatest confidence in the 
valour of our army and navy, and above all, in the assistance of 
Divine Providence." 

At the same time these considerations naturally did not commend 
themselves very strongly to men of democratic character who had 
been moulded in the melting-pot of war and privation and pioneer 
labour — to say nothing of hereditary affiliation in many cases to the 
Roundheads and Republicans of a preceding period in England. 
They chafed against commercial restrictions and the bonds of the 
Navigation Laws ; against the not infrequent insults of a rough sol- 
diery and supercilious officers ; against the attempts to prevent smug- 
gling and to collect taxes at the end of the bayonet. That a large 
minority finally revolted against all the complications arising out of this 
ignorant attempt of a free Parliament and its King to govern a free 
people three thousand miles away, is not altogether to be wondered 
at. The British authorities were without the machinery of suitable 
administration which might have made their effort at government 
successful, without the knowledge of local conditions which might have 
brought the distant Sovereis^n and his Ministers into touch with the 



i54 THIi LOYALIST PIONEERS 

Colonial masses, without a capacity on the part of the Kin;:j himself 
to select wise Governors and able commanders of the forces. The 
mistake of King George and the one for which he must stand con- 
demned at the bar of history was his choice of subordinates and his 
refusal to follow at an early period the advice of Pitt. There is abso- 
lutely no excuse for the placing of Lord George Germaine m charge 
of Colonial affairs, or for the appointment of such officers as Graves 
and Howe and Burgoyne, and others who were placed in responsible 
positions in the Colonies from time to time. 

POSITION OF THE LOYALISTS 

The cause of the Loyalists was based, however, upon more than 
loyalty to their King and their home country. It was at first the 
product of political opinions to which they would seem to have had 
every right in a free land. If the agitators had the inborn privilege 
of supporting constitutional change and of urging action which the 
Tories of the time believed would overthrow all that they held most 
worthy of allegiance and regard, certainly the latter had also the right 
to oppose such proposals. If that right of opposition belonged to 
them at a time when Washington and Franklin, Jefferson, Jay and 
Madison, were all declaiming against the possibility of separation 
from the Mother-land coming as a result of their agitation, how 
much more was it theirs when rebellion came to a head and indepen- 
dence was proclaimed? With the feeling which the)' possessed 
resistance to rebellion became a sacred duty and was certainly as much 
a matter of principle as was the struggle of the Continental troops for 
what they believed to be "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.". 

But, as so often happens in history, might in the end became 
right ; loyalty to the King became disloyalty to the new state which 
had risen out of the cramped Colonial conditions of the preceding 
time ; failure to hold the country for England resulted in failure to 
hold anything for themselves. Yet the Loyalists put up a good fight 




CHATEAU DERAMEZAY, MONTREAL 




OLD HUDSON S BAY COMPANY POST NEAR MONTREAL 



THE LOYALIST PIONEERS 155 

for the faith that was in them. The British Legion, the Royal 
Fencible Americans, the Queen's Rangers, the New York Volunteers, 
the King's American Regiments, the Prince of Wales' American Vol- 
unteers, the Maryland Loyalists, De Lancey's Battalion, the Second 
American Regiment, the King's Rangers, the South Carolina Royal- 
ists, the North Carolina Highland Regiment, the King's American 
Dragoons, the Loyal American Regiment, the American Legion, 
the Loyal Foresters, the Orange Rangers, the Pennsylvania Loyal- 
ists, the Guides and Pioneers, the North Carolina Volunteers, the 
Georgia Loyalists, the West Chester Volunteers, were amongst the 
Colonial regfiments fio-htingf on the King-'s side. 

When the war was over they suffered confiscation of property, as 
in many cases during the struggle and before actually taking up arms, 
they had suffered indignit)^ and outrage at the hands of that portion 
of a people which all war lets loose and which, in this case, was 
unfortunately too often encouraged by political leaders with other 
ends than those of patriotism in view. Apart from this aggressive 
element in the loyal part of the population there were numbers of 
peaceful and unoffending citizens who simply desired to maintain the 
law as it stood and to remain neutral in the strife around them. They 
were not of a type to be specially admired, but they suffered abun- 
dantly for their mistaken view of the situation. To drift and hesitate 
in days of rebellion is to invite danger and court destruction. Many 
of these people, as well as of the acknowledged Loyalists, were tarred 
and feathered, their property destroyed or taken from them, their 
dues in debts, or rents, or interest repudiated, their houses burned. 
Much of this occurred before the civil war actually commenced. After 
1775, every form of penalty was imposed — death, or confiscation, or 
imprisonment — upon those who refused to support the republican 
cause. On both sides, as feeling grew more bitter, the treatment of 
the non-combatants became more cruel and, naturally, the Loyalist 



IS6 THE LOYALIST PIONEERS 

element suffered the most. How intense was the feeling of their 
opponents may be judged by the declaration of John Adams, after- 
wards President of the United States, that he would have hanged his 
own brother had he taken the British part in the contest. When the 
Treaty of Versailles was being negotiated efforts were made to obtain 
adequate guarantees for the future safety of those who had adhered 
to the defeated side and the following words found a place on paper: 

" It is agreed that the Congress shall urgently recommend it to the Legislatures 
of the various States to provide for the restitution of all estates, rights and properties 
which have been confiscated, belonging to real British subjects and also of the estates, 
rights and properties of persons resident in districts in the possession of His Majesty's 
arms, and who have not borne arms against the said United States . . . and that 
Congress should also earnestly recommend to the several States a re-consideration and 
revision of all acts or laws regarding the premises, so as to render the said laws or acts 
perfectly consistent, not only with justice and equity, but with the spirit of conciliation 
which, on the return of the blessings of peace, should universally prevail." 

It is the barest statement of historic fact to say that no serious 
effort was ever made to carry out this agreement. Persecution of 
various kinds was rampant, thousands were driven out of the country 
and were happy to escape with their lives ; while, on May 12th, 1784, 
the Legislature of New York passed an Act which recapitulated every 
possible way in which a Loyalist could have taken part in the war 
and enacted that all such found within the State should be adjudged 
guilty of misprision of high treason. Meantime, Sir Guy Carleton 
was at New York, and before he evacuated the place finally, did 
everything possible to transport the suffering Loyalists to British 
territory. Sir Frederick Haldimand, Governor of Quebec, and John 
Parr, of Nova Scotia, did their best to receive and settle them on 
the vast vacant lands of the future Dominion. They came flocking 
in thousands to the Northern land where still floated the flag they 
loved so well — in ships and in boats, in covered waggons or on foot 



THE LOYAL[ST PIONEERS 157 

— until there were eventually some 4,500 settled along the shores of 
the St. Lawrence, 28,000 in the New Brunswick and Nova Scotia of 
the future, a few in Prince Edward Island, some thousands in the 
present Eastern Townships of Quebec, and probably 10,000 in the 
Ontario of to-day. They came without money, with little food and 
.few resources, with no experience in agriculture, and but small knowl- 
edge of the enormous hardships which they would have to face. 

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE LOYALIST MIGRATION 

This migration is one of the most interestinor and striking- facts of 
history. It was not the exodus of some great horde of people unable 
to earn their living in a European country, ignorant, uncultured, 
unprepared for the responsibilities of political life and action. It 
was a movement at least as significant as that of the Pilgrim Fathers. 
It differed from the latter in being the transfer of what may be 
termed, for want of a better designation, the prosperous upper class 
of the American community to a country which was a veritable 
wilderness. Both movements were made for conscience sake ; but 
one was largely religious, the other essentially political, or patriotic. 
It has been said that the Loyalists brought to the making of Canada 
the choicest stock the Thirteen Colonies could boast. They certainly 
did contribute an army of leaders, for it was the loftiest heads which 
attracted the attention of the Sons of Liberty, of the Legislatures, 
and of those influenced by the very opposite motives of cupidity and 
an honest desire to purge the young Republic of all dangerous elements. 

As amongst the Cavaliers of England, and, indeed, in almost all 
instances of civil strife in all countries, it was the most influential 
Judges, the most distinguished lawyers, the most highly educated of 
the clergy, the Members of Council in the various Colonies, the 
Crown officials, the people of culture and social position, who, in this 
case, stood by the Crown. There were many notable exceptions, but 
not more than enough to prove the rule. In this connection Professor 



158 THE LOYALIST PIONEERS 

Hosmcr in his LiJ e of 1 1 c )iry Adams, has truly said that "the Tories 
were generally people of substance, their stake in the countr\' was 
even greater than that of their opponents, their patriotism was no 
doubt to the full as fervent. The estates of the Tories were among 
the fairest, their stately mansions stood upon the sightliest hill-brows, 
the richest and best-tilled meadows were their fames." 

Of course, they were not all of this class, nor did all the hundred 
thousand refugees of that gloomy time come to the British Provinces. 
As with the Huguenots of France, over a hundred years before, they 
scattered over all countries — many to Great Britain or the West 
Indies. Amongst the Judges and legislators, the clergymen and mer- 
chants, who poured out of the ports and over the frontiers of the 
Republic there were also large numbers of regular soldiers as well as 
of Loyalist volunteers, many yeomen or farmers, many handicrafts- 
men or mechanics. All divisions of relicjious faith were there. 
Numbers of Church of England people settled in Upper Canada 
under the ministrations of Dr. John Stuart. Here came also the 
enthusiastic and faithful John Ashbury and the famous pioneer of 
Canadian Methodism, Barbara Heck, who led a band of loyal Metho- 
dists, to the shores of the Bay of Ouinte. To the district of Glen- 
garry, in Upper Canada, came a large and gallant body of Scotch 
Catholics, led by their priests, and destined to take no small part in 
the making of Ontario. To the same Province, a little later, migra- 
ted many of the peaceful Quakers and Mennonites of Pennsylvania. 
To the banks of the Thames came largr-e numbers of the Mohawk 
Indians under the leadership of Joseph Brant — loyal survivors of the 
famous Si.\ Nations. Such were the people, in a general sense, who 
poured into the northern British Provinces to found and establish a 
new British state. 

Of course, the migration did not pass without comment, or action, 
in England. The infraction of the spirit and intent of the Treaty of 



THE LOYALIST PIONEERS 159 

I 7S3, and the weakness of the Shelburne Government in accepting its 
vague pledges as sufficient protection, provoked angry debates in 
ParHament and forced the resignation of the Ministry. As Lord North 
well said in the House : "What were not the claims of those who, in 
conformity to their allegiance, their cheerful obedience to the voice of 
Parliament, and their confidence in the proclamations of our Generals, 
espoused with the hazard of their lives and the forfeiture of their 
properties, the cause of Great Britain ? " It was eventually decided to 
indemnify the Loyalists for actual losses, and a Royal Commission for 
this purpose was established in i 783 which, in the course of seven years, 
investigated 2,291 claims and paid out to the sufferers ^3,886,087 
sterling, or nearly $19,000,000. Large grants of land in all the 
Provinces were also given to them, and, in 1789, the title or affix of 
" U. E. L." was. granted by the Crown as a special honour to be 
borne by every United Empire Loyalist, and his, or her, descendant. 
Tools and implements and supplies of food were also issued from 
time to time. 

HARDSHIPS OF PIONEER LIFE 

The chief centres of these settlements were certain parts of 
Upper Canada, as the great and wild country to the immediate west of 
French Canadian Quebec was begfinninor to be called, the Eastern 
Townships of the present Province of Quebec, and the latter-day 
Province of New Brunswick. The other Maritime Provinces received 
a considerable number, also. To a great extent the experience of one 
family, or of one group of settlers was the experience of all. Log 
cabins, built in the wilderness, with a single room and a single window, 
were their homes ; coarse garments spun from fla.K or hemp, or made 
from the hides of animals, were their clothing — intermixed on rare 
occasions with the silks and laces and ruffles and gorgeous colours 
which had perhaps flaunted in a colonial court, or graced the drawing- 
rooms of a colonial mansion ; furniture was made from the roughest 



i6o THE LOYALIST I'lOSEIiRS 

of wood by the unskilful axe of the pioneer; the task of procuring 
enous;-h of Indian corn and wild rice to eat, or the staving: off of 
actual starvation, was for some time the principal occupation. Around 
them were the wild animals of forest life — wolves and bears and 
lynxes. In winter time there was always bitter suffering from a cold 
which then knew little cessation and from a snow and ice which 
seemed limitless in ciuantity and paralyzing to their energies. The 
latter condition also isolated their dwellings until horses and sleighs 
came, in better days, to help them bear this ordeal of life in the 
wilderness Yet they were not absolutely unhappy. They felt deeply 
and fervently the principles which had driven them into the wilds and, 
from many a log hut dimly lit by the blaze of a smoky fire came the 
evening hymn of " God Save the King," and the sound of the clear- 
voiced hope that their privations and labours might end in the building 
up of a greater and better commonwealth than the one they had left : 

" A vast Dominion stretc-hed from sea to sea, 
A land of labour but of sure reward, 
A land of corn to feed the world withal, 
A land of life's best treasures, plenty, peace, 
Content and freedom, both to speak and do, 
A land of men, to rule with sober hand, 
.'\s loyal as were iheir fathers and as free."* 

So far as possible tliey had settled in groups and helped each 
other with the early and arduous tasks of clearing the forest and 
chopping the timber into logs — with axes ill-suited for the work and 
with results not much better suited for the rough and ready cabins 
which they had to build for shelter. During many years there were 
no villages, or shops, or newspapers, or roads, or churches, or schools, 
or any other conveniences of the cultivated civilization to which they 
had been accustomed. Those of tliem who might have gone into 

• Unes by William Kirby, of Niagara 



THE LOYALIST PIONEERS i6i 

Other occupations than planting and reaping grain, or clearing timber, 
and who knew something of industrial labour and the work which 
might have brought various comforts to the pioneers, were kept from 
doing so by the hard necessity of obtaining food from the soil. The 
original condition of humanity, the still savage conception of life in 
many countries, was here illustrated in its crudest form ; and the stern 
necessity of existence was to obtain sufficient food during the summer 
to last through the long, cruel winter. As it was, famine came to 
Upper Canada in 1787-S, and severe hunger was added to the hard- 
ships of cold and the dangers of wild animal life around the settlers. 
Cornmeal was served out in spoonfuls, millet seed became a substi- 
tute for wheat flour, wheat bran was greatly valued, ground nuts were 
sought for and eaten, boiled oats and even bark and birch leaves were 
acceptable. Game and fish when caught, which was not very fre- 
quently, had to be eaten without salt, and tea and sugar were unknown 
for years — until the latter was replaced by maple sugar and syrup. 

This season, however, was the climax of privation and trouble. 
Progress, thereafter, was sure and steady. More settlers came in and, 
as time passed, included a large number of what were called " later 
Loyalists " — Americans who were loyal at heart but had managed to 
keep from being publicly obnoxious to the Continentalists. They 
now took advantage of various openings and came across the fron- 
tier in huge caravans, Avith their families and flocks and home com- 
forts. From 1792 to 1796 Lieutenant-Governor J. Graves Simcoe, 
of Upper Canada, encouraged this species of immigrant, gave new set- 
tlers large grants and did everything to encourage a still greater influx 
of population. Gradually the increasing migration had its effect upon 
the isolation of the pioneers and the absence of comforts in their 
homes. More varied occupations became possible. Carpenters and 
painters, shoe-makers and mill-wrights, started their industries. Better 
houses were erected, mills became more and more numerous, small 



,62 TUE LOYALIST PIONEERS 

general shops were opened and supplied with goods, over hundreds 
of miles of waterway, from Quebec, while, above all, military roads 
were established under guidance of the energetic and far-seeing Simcoe 
and branched out from his village capital at York (Toronto) in 
various directions. 

Cattle and horses were once more to be obtained and the sleigh- 
bells of the settlers were heard in winter ringing through the silent 
forest as they passed from one cottage to another. Log school- 
houses arose, here and there, with miserable little urchins perched on 
high seats without aback and with their legs dangling in mid-air, while 
receiving instruction from the crudest and rudest type of the travelling 
teacher. The process of progress was necessarily slow but it was now 
sure. As the years passed on to the period, in i Si 2-1 5 ,when their cour- 
age and loyalty were to be again tested, many of the Loyalist gentry had 
reached a position of comparative comfort once more ; most of the 
poorer classes were able to live without actual privation. But there 
was no wealth or luxury, no development of artistic tastes and culture, 
except in the very simplest of forms. 

Meanwhile, in New Brunswick and Xova Scotia, in Prince 
Edward Island and Cape Breton, the Loyalists had come and taken 
possession. There were some slight differences in the nature of their 
settlements and those of Upper Canada. They seem to have stayed 
more together, to have avoided something of the painful isolation of 
their brother Colonists, to have benefited by their proximity to the 
sea-coast and to England, to have suffered less from cold and to have 
lareelv avoided the horrors of starvation. There were, of course, 
exceptions, such as the record of the first eight hundred settlers in 
Cape Breton reveals. Towns grew apace and the whole life of these 
Provinces became influenced in the most overwhelming manner by the 
inllux of the Loyalists. New Brunswick received its type and char- 
acter from them entirely, while Nova Scotia, though an old and historic 



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DR. ALEXANDRE ANTONIN TACHE 
Archbishop of St. Boniface, 1871-95 



THE REV. DR. SAMUEL S. NELLES 




THE REV. DR. R. A. FYFE 



THE MOST REV. DR. FRANCIS FULFORD 

Bishop of Montreal and Metropolitan of Canada 



THE LOYALIST PIONEERS 165 

region with a considerable Acadian population and the advantage of 
having preserved the military centre of Halifax during a hundred and 
fifty years, was largely affected. In the Eastern Townships of Quebec 
the Loyalists found local conditions more distasteful than distant 
hardships and, disliking the absence of constitutional rule, many 
migrated again into Upper Canada and joined their brethren in the 
great Lake country. 

To all the Provinces these American refugees carried their views 
of government ; intense feelings of loyalty which had been bred into 
their very bones by persecution and exile ; strong belief in monarchy 
as the best and truest form of government ; a love of country which 
grew with the hardships endured so patiently ; a feeling that they had 
the right to control and guide, in days to come, the destinies, the affairs, 
the policy of the Provinces they were founding and maintaining 
through stress and storm. Out of this natural sentiment came many 
complications in the future and much political turmoil. But that is 
another story. 



CHAPTER Vlir 
Early Coni^titutional Dcxclopnicnt 

THE form of government in New France was at once autocratic 
and bureaucratic and ecclesiastical. The King interfered when 
he pleased and changed or adjusted matters as he saw fit. 
The Governors were usually soldiers and, in the face of constant dan- 
ger from Iroquois or English, naturally ruled in an arbitrary manner, 
though often without that precision of plan and action which would 
have marked the able military administrator. Champlain and Fron- 
tenac, Denonville and Vaudreuil, constituted at times, however, the 
whole government of the Colony in their own persons. 

SVSTKM OF GOVERNMEiNT IX KRENCH CAX.'VD.V 

With the Governor-General was an Intendant who guided, more 
or less, the finances of the country and the matters of administrative 
detail. When the Intendant was a strong man and the Governor a 
weak one the former for good or ill controlled the State. Jean Talon, 
who filled the position in 1665-68 and for five years following 1670, 
was the creator of the constitution of New France — such as it was. A 
strong organizer, an honest administrator, he did as much good to the 
infant state as the last Intendant, the corrupt and crafty Francois Bigot, 
did harm. Intimately associated with these officials was the Bishop. .A.t 
times he was the greatest of the three, and the most influential. Laval, 
St. Vallier and Pontbriand wielded in their day a combined ecclesias- 
tical and civil power in French Qanada which was not dissimilar to the 
place held by the Princes of their Church in mediaeval Europe. 

In 1663, Louis XIV. created what was at first called a Sovereign 
Council, and afterwards the Supreme Council, as the governing 
166 



EARLY CONSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT 167 

body of his American possessions. It was composed of the Gover- 
nor-General, who had charge of all military matters, the Bishop, 
who was supreme in all ecclesiastical concerns — and many which 
would now be termed civil ones — and the Intendant, who was Presi- 
dent of the Council, with a casting vote and with complete control 
over police, trade, justice, and other departments of civil administra- 
tion. With these practically supreme ofificials were associated six, and 
afterwards twelve Councillors, who were chosen from amongst the 
leading residents. Under this system, and up to the conquest, the 
Government of the colony fluctuated and merged into differing degrees 
of military administration, class supremacy, ecclesiastical control, and 
financial manipulation. 

ESTABLISHMENT OF FRENCH MILITARY RULE 

Its leading objects were the establishment of French military rule 
over as wide a space as possible between Hudson's Bay and the 
regions of the Ohio Valley and the Mississippi ; the development of 
the fur trade, with profitable returns to the numerous French inter- 
ests in that connection , the extension of religion to the Indians and 
the expansion of the power of the Church ; the eventual hemming 
in of the English settlements upon the Atlantic by a background of 
French forts and military stations down through the heart of the 
continent. Constitutional machinery, in a popular sense, was not 
required for such objects, and in fact proved far from beneficial in this 
respect, and in even a restricted form, to the English Thirteen 
Colonies. The scattered local centres of the latter were Governed in 
those days in a detached and hap-hazard way and with a democratic 
freedom which was not conducive to united military action or concen- 
trated policy. 

Under early British administration the change in New France, or 
Quebec as it was now termed, was very slight. From 1 764 to 1 774 the 
military influence was practically supreme, and the power possessed by 



i68 EAh'I. Y CONSTirUTlOSAL DEVELOPMES'T 

Lord Amherst, General Murray and Sir Guy Carleton was almost 
autocratic. In the latter year came the Quebec Act, and a <jeneral 
adjustment of the government to conditions which had developed 
amongst the French of the Lower Province and the new Loyalist 
settlers of the Upper Province as a result of the decade of British rule. 

THE QUEJ3EC ACT 

The origin of this important legislation was in the relations 
between the I'rench majority in Quebec and the English minority; 
its evolution was in the mind and policy of Guy Carleton, Lord Dor- 
chester ; its immediate result was the saving of British America to 
the Crown during the American Revolution ; its ultimate consequence 
was the French Province of modern times with full liberty of laws, 
language and religion. At the Conquest, and by the Treaty of Paris, 
these rights had been formally guaranteed in a religious sense to the 
65,000 inhabitants of Quebec (who by 1774 had increased to 150,000) 
in the declaration that "the worship of their religion, according to the 
rites of the Romish Church, as far as the laws of Great Britain per- 
mit " was to be allowed. In practice, also, the various religious Orders 
had been given full freedom of action and exemption from taxation. 
This crenerosity, however, was not altogether palatable to the small 
English population, while, on the other hand, the habitants did not 
understand the English Civil law though willing enough to accept 
English Criminal law. The result of a not very aggressive efTort to 
substitute the laws of the conqueror for those of the conquered had 
been dissatisfaction and a great deal of confusion. 

As the years passed on, too, the menacing storm-cloud of trouble 
in the Thirteen Colonies grew dark, and it became eminently desir- 
able to conciliate the French-Canadians and correct every possible 
grievance. The territory which was administered at this time under 
the general designation of Quebec was considerably different from 
that of later days and was greatly restricted in extent — although it 



EARLY CUNSTITUTIOSAI. DEVEI.UI'M]-:nT 169 

became enlartjed beyond recognition by the Quebec Act itself. By 
the King's Proclamation of 1763, Governor Murray had been author- 
ized to "summon and call general Assemblies of the free-holders and 
planters" as soon as the "situation and circumstances" of the new 
Province would permit. Naturally and properly he was in no hurry 
to introduce the apple of political discord and the difficulties of an 
elective system amongst people imbued with French autocratic habits 
of government and utterly ignorant of British ideas and principles. 
He was also occupied with the more immediately important work of 
arranging the judicial and administrative functions of the new Gov- 
ernment. 

With the coming of Carleton, in 176S, a new constitutional stage 
in affairs was developed and conditions already indicated demanded 
the attention of a man who is one of the heroic characters of Canadian 
history. His policy during this period included the enlargement 
of the area of Quebec so as to bring within its bounds as much as 
possible of the regions once claimed by its French rulers ; the cen- 
tralization of government in its various phases under the control of the 
Crown or, in other words, in his own hands ; the obtaining of Roman 
Catholic sympathy and the powerful support of the Church for British 
connection and government in the inevitable troubles which he saw 
to be coming from the New England and Atlantic Colonies ; the 
amelioration of local conditions so as to make the French settlers 
satisfied with local laws ; the avoidance of unnecessary or unpopular 
taxation. Fortunately for Great Britain and the Canada of the 
future he was given a tolerably free hand and would have held a still 
stronger position and a greater place in the history of the Continent 
if it had not been for the fatuous littleness of Lord George Germaine. 
In 1769, after a close study of the situation, he returned to England 
bent upon obtaining the legislation afterwards expressed in the 
Quebec Act. In the persistent work of the next few years he received 



170 EARLY CONSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT 

strong and substantial aid from Chief Justice Hey of Quebec, and 
from Francois Maseres, the Attorney-General of the Province. 

By the terms of the Act the Province of Quebec was defined as 
extending southward to the Ohio, westward to the Mississippi, north- 
ward to the boundaries of the Hudson's Bay territory, and eastward 
to the borders of Nova Scotia. A Council was to be appointed con- 
sisting of such persons resident in the Province, " not exceeding 
twenty-three or less than seventeen, as His Majesty, his heirs and 
successors may be pleased to appoint." This body was to have author- 
ity to make laws for " the peace, welfare and good government of the 
Province, with the consent of His Majesty's Governor, or in his absence 
of the Lieutenant-Governor, or Commander-in-Chief for the time 
being." It was further provided that the Council should not have 
power to impose taxes on the people of Quebec except for ordinary 
local public works ; that every Ordinance or law was to be subject to 
disallowance by the King within six months ; that laws affecting reli- 
gion, or imposing severe penalties of any kind, must have the Royal 
sanction before becoming operative ; that the King should retain the 
right to establish Courts of law ; that nothing in the Act should be 
construed as repealing or affecting the British enactments already 
passed for '' prohibiting, restraining or regulating the trade or com- 
merce of His Majesty's Colonies or Plantations in America," The 
vital point of the whole measure was, however, in its religious 
clauses. 

In the Montreal Articles of Capitulation, signed on September 
8, 1760, by General Amherst and M. de Vandreuil, entire freedom of 
worship had been promised to Roman Catholics and the Communities 
of Nuns and Priests were to be maintained in their properties and 
privileges. The Treaty of Paris, three years later, granted " the 
liberty of the Roman Catholic religion to the inhabitants of Canada ' 
and gave them permission to worship according to the rites of their 



EARLY CONSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT 171 

Church, " so far as the laws of Great Britain permit." This latter 
clause could, of course, have been read so as to invalidate all privi- 
leges and freedom of worship, but this was not done. Now, by 
the terms of the Quebec Act, not only was the former religious 
liberty maintained, but the Roman Catholic Clergy were authorized 
" to hold, receive and enjoy their accustomed dues and rights with 
respect to such persons only as shall profess the said religion," while 
" ecclesiastical persons and officers " were relieved from the necessity 
of taking the Elizabethan Oath of Supremacy and were given instead 
a simple oath of allegiance. Religious Orders and Communities 
were exempted from the guarantee of properties and possessions but 
with the exception of the Society of Jesus, which had been suppressed 
in 1773 by Pope Clement IV, "with their functions, houses, and 
institutions," the exception was allowed to remain inoperative. 

Incidentally, and in order to appease the small Protestant popu- 
lation of the Colony where Roman Catholicism was thus practically 
established as a Church in alliance with the State it was specified that 
out of the dues and rights referred to above the King might provide 
for " the maintenance and support of the Protestant Clergy " in the 
Province. The principles and practice of the French Civil law were 
in some vao-ue measure auaranteed to the inhabitants while those of 
the English Criminal law were expressly established. Such was the 
Quebec Act of 1774. It was by no means a perfect measure, nor did 
it give complete satisfaction either at the time or afterwards. But it 
carried the Province through a period of trouble and perplexity and 
created a substantial basis for fuller constitutional action along more 
extended lines. 

The controversies surrounding this enactment in England were 
as interesting as they were extensive. On May 26, 1774, Sir Guy 
Carleton, Chief Justice Hey, Attorney-General Maseres and M. de 
Lotbiniere had appeared before the bar of the House of Commons to 



172 r.ARi.y ros'srrri'rriyxAi. devulupmf.nt 

discuss and explain the proposed legislation. Carlcton declared that 
there was no desire for an Assembly amongst the French-Canadians, 
that there were only 360 Protestant families in the country, all told, 
and that there was not enough representative men to warrant the 
creation of such a body. He did not favour a French Assembly. M. 
Maseres stated thai the French in Canada had no clear ideas regrard- 
ing government, induly^ed in few theoretical speculations and would 
be content with any form given them so long as it was well adminis- 
tered. Chief Justice Hey wanted to see the laws blended with those 
of England — in other words the abolition of special race and religious 
privileges. M. de Lotbiniere seemed to think that if the French 
Seigneurial tenure system was maintained and the Seigneurs admit- 
ted to some kind of a Council the people would be fairly satisfied. 

In this connection the special reports of the British Attorney- 
General Thurlow, and Solicitor-General Wedderburn, had already 
been submitted to Parliament. Poth the writers were eminent men. 
The former became celebrated as Lord High Chancellor and Baron 
Thurlow, the latter as Lord Hieh Chancellor, Baron Louehborouorh 
and Earl of Rosslyn. Thurlow believed in non-interference with 
existing Civil laws, customs, manners, private rights, minor public 
affairs and religious privileges. Wedderburn favoured the establish- 
ment of a Council with restricted powers in the making of laws, the 
retention of religious privileges, the protection of the priests, the 
toleration of Monastic Orders — with the exception of the Jesuits. 
Marryott, the Advocate-General, whose report did not appear until 
after the passage of the Act, very wisely urged the regulation of the 
Courts of Justice, the definition and declaration of the Civil law, and 
the regulation of the revenue. He believed in dual language in the 
Courts but did not approve of any formal establishment or recogni- 
tion of the Roman Catholic faith. It should, he thought, merely be 
tolerated. 



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EARLY CO.VST/rUTIO.VAL DEVELOPMENT 173 

The debates in the House of Commons were stormy. Those 
were days of not only extreme sensibility regarding Colonies in gen- 
eral, of natural doubt concerning questions of loyalty and the ties of 
kinship, but of strong prejudice against Roman Catholicism, and of 
intense and very proper suspicion of anything touching French char- 
acter and French friendship. It was the commencement of an era 
which racked men's souls and carried the British ship of state through 
varied seas of storm and stress. On June 8, 1774, when the meas- 
ure came before the House, William Burke declared that instead of 
making the Colonists free subjects of England they were being 
sentenced to French government for ages. " They are condemned 
slaves by the British Parliament." Thomas Townshend described it 
as a measure " to establish Popery." Colonel Barre declared it to be 
"Popish from beginning to end." Mr. Sergeant Glynne believed 
that it was the duty of England not to be too tolerant of alien prin- 
ciples and prejudices, but " to root those prejudices from the minds 
of Canadians, to attach them by degrees to the Civil Government of 
England, and to rivet the union by the strong ties of laws, language 
and relio;-ion." 

THE WORKING OF THE QUEBEC ACT 

Parliament, however, passed the Act and the King signed it, 
despite protests such as that of the Corporation of London, which 
denounced it as subversive of the fundamental principles of the 
Monarchy, as establishing the Roman Catholic religion, and as failing 
to provide for the proper protection of the Protestant faith. During 
the seventeen years in which this legislation was in force it can hardly 
be said to have had a fair chance for efficient operation. It did the 
one great thing for which it was created in modifying French Can- 
adian suspicions ; and thus holding the people passive during the 
stormy period of the American Revolution and preventing them from 
falling into the swirl of French ambition and revolutionary ideas. 



174 EANI.y COSHTirUTIOSAL DEVELOPMENT 

It won for England the powerful alliance and support of the 
Church of Rome in the Colony and the support of its adherents in 
the War of 1S12 — long after the measure itself had been replaced 
and extended by the Act of 1791. But it failed as a means for really 
efficient administration of Provincial affairs. It did not conciliate the 
natural and antagonistic feelings of the sm.all body of the English 
settlers toward the large French section of the population. It did not 
sufficiently distinguish between the French and English laws and define 
which was to be maintained and which discarded. It did not teach the 
Judges how to bring order out of legal chaos and administer justice 
under a system which they did not understand the limits of. It did not 
make easier the complications which naturally arose when thousands of 
American Loyalists settled in the Upper part of the Province and found 
themselves governed by a mixed English and French system. 

Meanwhile, Sir Guy Carleton had become Lord Dorchester and 
was sent back to the Province which he had done so much to hold 
for Great Britain and to mould into its existing shape. He arrived 
in 1 786, as Governor-General of all British America, and seems to 
have seen at once that some modification in the Quebec Act was 
necessary under the new circumstances which had arisen. In response 
to a request from the Colonial Secretary for a report on the subject, 
Lord Dorchester declared that any change in the constitution should 
be gradual, that a firm and paternal administration was the best cure 
for present troubles, that the Loyalist settlement in the west was not 
yet ready for anything higher than county government, and that a 
Lieutenant-Governor of ability should be at once selected for the 
Upper part of the Province. In case the division of the Province of 
Quebec in a definite form were decided upon, he submitted certain 
suggestions as to the line of separation. In 1 789 the policy was settled, 
and, two years later, the new Constitutional .\ct passed theBritish Par- 
liament after its terms had been fully approved by Lord Dorchester. 



EARLY CONSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT 175 

By this new measure Quebec was divided into two distinct 
Provinces, with a Lieutenant-Governor, a Legislative Council and 
an Assembly in each. The Council was to consist of not less than 
seven members appointed for life by the Governor-General, or 
Lieutenant-Governor, and with hereditary functions under certain con- 
ditions. The Assembly was to consist of not less than fifty members 
in Lower Canada and sixteen in Upper Canada. The Governor had 
power to give, or reserve, or refuse the King's assent to any measure 
passed by the Council and Assembly, while the King-in-Council could 
disallow any Bill within two years of its passage. A Court of Civil 
Jurisdiction in each Province was to be established. The Governor 
was given power to allot lands and rent therefrom for the support of 
the Protestant clergy in both Upper and Lower Canada, and, with the 
advice of his Executive Council, to erect parsonages under the juris- 
diction of the Bishop of Nova Scotia. No legislation under the Act 
was to interfere with Parliamentary prohibitions or duties regarding 
commerce and navigation. 

OBJECTIONS TO THE CONSTITUTIONAL ACT 

Some of the local objections to this measure were natural ; others, 
in the retrospect of history, seem very curious. Adam Lymburner, a 
respected merchant of Quebec City, represented before the bar of the 
House of Commons the views of many English-speaking settlers. 
They wanted the absolute repeal of the Quebec Act and a new con- 
stitution which would limit the power of the French-Canadians and 
increase their own. They disliked the proposed division of territory, 
he declared, because if the policy were ever found to work injuriously 
the Provinces could not be re-united ; and because the new Province 
of Upper Canada " would be entirely cut-off from all communication 
with Great Britain," and there would thus be a gradual weakening in 
the existing ties of loyalty and attachment to the Mother-country. 
He opposed the clause conferring hereditary membership in the 



176 EARLY CONSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT 

Legislative Council, and concluded his evidence by declaring that the 
P^alls of Niagara were "an insurmountable barrier to the transporta- 
tion of produce " and that Quebec was nearly the centre of the culti- 
vable part of the Province. On May 6, 1791, there commenced a 
debate in the Imperial Commons which has become historical on 
account of the controversy between Pitt and Fox and Burke. 

It was then the day of blood and terror in France as well as of 
the dominance in the British Parliament of an eloquence which has 
never since been equalled. Naturally, this conferring of constitutional 
liberties upon the French of Quebec stirred up the friends and foes 
of the French Revolution in Parliament and caused some great 
speeches. Burke declared that a new light had arisen upon the 
horizon of France. The French Academies, uniting with French 
Clubs, had lit the blaze of liberty with the torch of sedition and had 
diffused the flame of freedom by the help of La Lanteme. He 
seemed to fear that there was an attempt in the proposed Act to 
graft some of the principles of the French constitution upon that of 
the Colony and he strongly advocated the adoption of British prin- 
ciples only. 

Fox denounced everything and everybody and especially the 
clause of the Bill which applied the hereditary principle to the Legis- 
lative Council. Pitt, with all his powerful personality and influence, 
defended the measure and eventually carried it through the House. 
He expressed his wish to give Canada as perfect a constitution as 
possible — a mixture of monarchy, aristocracy and democracy such as 
they had in Great Britain herself. It is apparent from these debates 
that the British statesmen of that critical period were warmly appre- 
ciative of the loyalty of the French-Canadians during the American 
Revolution and of their conservatism in connection with the still 
more menacing storm in France. Pitt, himself, had an idea that the 
more the Colonies in British America could be kept apart the better 



EARLY CONSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT 177 

it would be for their loyalty, and he, therefore, strongly favoured the 
perpetuation of French laws, institutions and language in Lower 
Canada with that object in view. Union amongst the Thirteen 
Colonies had produced war and independence ; union amongst the 
remaining British Colonies would certainly be dangerous ! When 
such was the belief of England's greatest political leader in 1791 
there is certainly some ground for excusing the mistakes of King 
George a quarter of a century before. 

After the Bill had passed both Houses it was duly proclaimed by 
the King-in-Council on August 24, 1791, and the Provinces of Upper 
and Lower Canada created. Lord Dorchester was, of course, still 
Governor-General, or Governor-in-Chief, as the title went for many 
years after this time. Major-General Sir Alvred Clarke was Lieutenant- 
Governor of the Lower Province, Major-General J. Graves Simcoe of 
the Upper. Amongst those who were present at Quebec in Decem- 
ber of this year during the inauguration of the new constitution was 
H. R. H. Prince Edward — afterwards Duke of Kent and father of 
Queen Victoria. Newark, afterwards Niagara, was the first capital 
of the infant Province of Upper Canada, and then York — afterwards 
Toronto — was founded by Simcoe for this purpose upon the shores 
of Lake Ontario and amidst a background of deep and gloomy forest. 
His earliest preference, however, had been a place on the Thames, in 
the heart of the western wilderness and far removed from danger of 
American attack, which afterwards became the City of London. 
Simcoe's first Assembly met at Newark on September 17, 1792, and 
the first Parliament of Lower Canada at Quebec on December 17th 

followinaf. 

The conditions prevalent in the two communities at this time 
were very different. The Upper Province was peopled by British 
Loyalists trained in Colonial self-government, so far as it was under- 
stood in those days, and saturated with faith in the freedom and 



lyS KAKl.y L\).\SlirUTlONAL DEVELOPMENT 

fairness of lirilish instiiutions. They had English laws and their lands 
were held on free-hold tenure. They had a Governor who was one 
of those clear-sighted, determined characters so essential to a period 
and conditions when the mould of nationality is not formed and when 
much depends upon the initiative of those who possess authority. He 
was British and loyal to the heart's core, had fought in command of 
the Queen's Rangers of Virginia during the Revolution, and fully 
expected to fight in another struggle of the same kind. During his 
brief four years of power, he, in fact, warned the Home authorities 
that another war with the United States was inevitable before matters 
finally settled down. He prepared in such small ways as he could for 
the possibility, built roads throughout the wilderness. suited for the 
transport of troops, issued a proclamation offering freer grants of 
land to all Loyalists still remaining in the States, and was successful 
in obtaining large numbers. Incidentally he did much, by pressure 
upon the Imperial authorities, to establish the Church of England in 
the Province and something to help education and to lay the first 
foundations of municipal institutions. 

Lower Canada, on the other hand, was essentially a Prench 
Province. It had a British Governor, an Assembly after the PZnglish 
pattern, the Habeas Corpus Act, and the Criminal law of England. 
But this was all. Lands were still held on the old French feudal 
tenure, althoueh to suit incomintr settlers the freehold tenure was 
allowed under special request. French law in civil matters was para- 
mount as were French customs and lanoruaire. The reliofion which 
has been identified with French-Canadian life was practically estab- . 
lished as a State Church at the very time that its influence was being 
destroyed and its position utterly undermined in the Mother-land of the 
Canadian habitant. As in Upper Canada, however, a large portion of 
the wild lands of the Province was set apart for the support of the Pro- 
testant clergy. The people were ignorant, entirely untrained in 



EARLY COXSTITUTIONAL DEl'E/.OPMENT 179 

constitutional doctrine or practice, and really unable for some years 
to grasp the meaning of an elective Assembly. When they did so the 
results were not exactly beneficial, 

THE MARITIME TROVINCES 

Meanwhile, the Maritime Provinces were making rapid progress. 
The introduction of the Loyalists had given a new meaning to the 
staid and sober political conditions of Acadian life. As far back as 
1758 there had been free institutions and the first representative 
Assembly formed on Canadian soil had begun to sit at Halifax in 
October of that year. The Province of Nova Scotia then included 
the New Brunswick of the future and the two Islands along the 
coast. But, with the coming of the great Loyalist migration, a 
re-adjustment was found necessary and New Brunswick, in 1784, 
became a Province with an Assembly and a Governor of its own — 
Colonel Thomas Carleton, brother of Lord Dorchester. It had pros- 
pered greatly under the heavy preferential duties which England 
imposed in favour of its lumber ; and its rivers were choked with 
floating timber, its saw-mills crowded with products for ship-building 
and manufacturing-. 

In Nova Scotia a sturdy and able Loyalist, an old-fashioned and 
honourable Tory, in the person of Sir John Wentworth was Governor 
from 1792 to 1808. Hehelped Bishop Inglisto found the University 
of King's College and to vigorously uphold the union of State and 
Church. Incidentally, the war with France had caused a great dis- 
play of patriotism amongst the militia and the enrollment of the 
Royal Nova Scotia Regiment ; while the presence of H. R. H. the 
Duke of Kent at Halifax, as Commander of the forces in British 
America, had made that city a brilliant social centre and, through the 
personal popularity of the Duke, had caused the name of the Island 
of St. John to be changed to Prince Edward. Population, meantime, 
had grown greatly throughout all the Provinces. In 1791 it was 



i8o EAKLY CONSTIIUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT 

about 20,000 in Upper Canada, 150,000 in Lower Canada, and 50,000 
in the Provinces by the sea. By 1806 these figures had grown to 
about 70,000 in Upper Canada, 250,000 in Lower Canada, and over 
100,000 in the Atlantic Provinces. 

With the expansion of population, the influx of new people with 
fresh ideas, or old principles, and the friction of wider discussion, 
came controversies of serious importance and the seeds of a situation 
which was eventually to destroy the Act of 1791 and to re-create the 
constitutions of all the Provinces. Roughly speaking, the Constitu- 
tional Act was fairly successful in its operation in the Canadas up to 
the end of the century ; workable with many jars and much friction 
during the ensuing decade ; and thenceforward a complete failure. 
The pivotal point in its creation and application was the three-fold 
structure of Governor*, Legislative Council and House of Assembly. 
They corresponded, after a shadowy fashion, to the King, Lords and 
Commons of England. There was the Executive Council, which 
developed from a single advisory body of representative men into a 
strono- Cabinet somewhat after the English stvle but without the vital 
points of responsibility to the Legislature or the adoption of a depart- 
mental system. 

The Governor or Lieutenant-Governor was, of course, appointed 
by the Crown. The Legislative Council was appointed by the Governor, 
as was the Executive Council. The two Councils came in time to 
be so mixed up in composition and so strongly of one opinion- in 
matters of policy, that they were practically one and the same body 
— the smaller one being really a committee of the larger. The 
Assembly, on the other hand, was elected by the people for a fixed 
term of years and naturally soon came into conflict with the Upper 
House. This was the form of government in all the Provinces, but 

• The Governor-General seems to have been (he real Governor of Lower Canada while in the other Provinces be 
rarely interfered with the Lieutenant-Governors. 



EARLY CONSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENl i8i 

its operation was very different in the French and English sections, 
and the reasons urged for its maintenance or change equally dissimilar. 

In Lower Canada the Governors came out, generally, with an 
idea that the French-Canadians must be conciliated and their loyalty 
maintained ; but that no shred of Imperial supremacy should be sur- 
rendered. Upon their arrival they found that the English minority 
was enterprising, wealthy and undoubtedly loyal to British interests 
and ideas, but in continuous and bitter controversy with a French 
majority whose leaders every year became more anti-British, and more 
out of touch with the principles supported by the Crown's representa- 
tives, and, as they soon discovered, by the members of the two 
English-speaking Councils. In following out their instructions to 
conserve British connection they had, therefore, to practically 
renounce the hope of conciliating the French, or else to place them- 
selves in a position of direct antagonism to the English. Sometimes 
they risked the latter alternative and the interests, or supposed inter- 
ests, of England and the British element in the Colony were sacrificed 
at the shrine of a fleeting French popularity. Then there was con- 
fusion worse confounded. 

In Upper Canada the difficulty took a slightly different shape. 
There was little trouble during the earlier years as all the population 
was Loyalist, of one mind in political thought, and intent chiefly upon 
building up its homes and strengthening its stakes in the wilderness. 
Later, when population grew greater and Radicals came from Scot- 
land and Lancashire, Liberals from various parts of England, Ameri- 
cans from the States, who were intent upon business advantage and 
filled with republican notions, the situation altered considerably. 
These people naturally knew nothing of former conditions, and were 
antagonistic to the class government which they found in existence. 
That it was the best in administrative skill and knowledge which the 
Colony — little in population and great in territory — could produce ; 



i82 EARLY CONSTITUTIONAL niiVELOPMENT 

thai the Councils were made up of men who had gone through the 
perils and privations of pioneer life without original hope of power, 
and who thoroughly believed in their right to rule the Province they 
had founded ; that it was desirable to proceed slowly and carefully in 
the making of a constitution ; for all these things the new-comers cared 
little. Collisions of opinion under such conditions were inevitable, 
and it was equally a matter of course and of right, as affairs then stood, 
that the Governor and the Loyalists should work together. 

In the Maritime Provinces affairs remained without change, or 
serious agitation for change, until long after this period. The bulk 
of the settlers were either Loyalists, or Acadians, and in either case 
not inclined to active agitation against the governing powers. The 
Governors, upon the whole, were good administrators, intent upon 
developing Colonial resources. So it was that, while most of the 
powers of government remained in the hands of the Governor and 
Council in each of the Atlantic Provinces, people did not find them- 
selves placed in any position of acute antagonism, or under the appar- 
ent necessitv of enerofetic aijitation. None the less, however, was the 
time merely postponed for beginning the long struggle which was to 
develop here, as elsewhere, between Governor and Assembly. That 
conflict commenced seriously in the Maritime Provinces after the War 
of 1S12, and lasted through infinite variations, until 1 S48. 



CHAPTER IX 
The War of i8 12-15 

AS in the case of so many historic conflicts, the nominal causes 
of the War of 1S12 between Great Britain and the United 
States were not the real ones. The Berlin Decrees of 
Napoleon Bonaparte and the retaliatory Orders-in-Council of the 
British Government, by which each Power sought to blockade the 
coast of its enemy and check its trade and commerce, naturally bore 
hardly upon neutral Powers. Especially was this the case with the 
American Republic, which had come to almost monopolize the carry- 
ing trade of the world during England's prolonged death-grapple 
with France. So far as the latter country was concerned, the 
blockade was a mere paper mandate, but in the case of Eno-land, 
with her immense and effective navy, the Orders-in-Council became 
a stern reality and were not a little injurious to American interests. 

CAUSES OF THE WAR 

Still, the action on the part of England was just in itself, as 
well as a matter of justifiable self-defence, and had there been any- 
thing approaching a general spirit of friendliness or kinship in the 
United States, to say nothing of sympathy with the Mother-coun- 
try's continued struggle for the liberties of Europe, the policy would 
have been borne patiently or modified as a result of courteous repre- 
sentations. But, except in parts of New England, and in isolated 
instances elsewhere, this sentiment did not exist, and the irritation 
which still lingered from the days of the Revolution orew in force 
and fire as it fed upon the unfortunate effect of the war on American 
commerce. 

183 



1 84 rni-: war of 1S12-1S 

So also with the question of the right to search neutral ships 
upon the high seas for deserters. From the United States' stand- 
point of the time and with any clear perception of the natural feel- 
ings of a young, proud and high-strung nation, under all the circum- 
stances of the case, it is easy now to see how offensive the seizure of 
its vessels and the forcible removal of suspected seamen must have 
been. At the same time, had there not been the bitterness of a 
strong and preconceived hostility of sentiment, the reasonableness of 
England's position from her standpoint would have been far more 
generally recognized. 

AMERICAN KXI'ECTATIONS 

The latter country was engaged in a great struggle for national 
existence, and her very life depended upon the fleet whose strength 
was being steadily depleted by the desertion of its seamen to Ameri- 
can vessels. Under such circumstances her exercise of a right of 
search, which had not been previously questioned with any degree of 
seriousness by other Powers, might at least have been met in a spirit 
of some compromise. To have refused to accept, or to have aided 
in returning, the deserters from ships of a friendly Power, under such 
conditions of extreme gravity, might have been thought a reasonable 
action. But it does not seem to have been even considered, and the 
unfortunately high-handed action of H. M. S. Leopard in capturing 
the Chesapeake and taking certain alleged deserters to Halifax Har- 
bour, where they were tried and punished, complicated matters still 
further. And this despite the immediate apologies of the British 
Government and recall of the officers concerned. Then came the 
unprovoked destruction of the Little Belt by an American frigate in 
181 1. Jefferson's embargo, excluding British ships from American 
ports, also followed ; though it was afterwards repealed from inability 
to enforce its provisions. And so things developed in connection 
with these two nominal causes of a sanguinary struggle. 



THE WAR OF 1812-15 185 

First of all, the real reasons for the war lay deeper. There was, 
the still smouldering hostility of Revolutionary days in the United 
States. There was, still further, the natural sympathy of its people 
with France, as an old-time ally against England, and despite the 
apparent inconsistency of a republic supporting the ambitions of a 
military autocracy. There was, also, a lingering and longing desire 
to round off the country by the acquisition of British America; and 
the strong popular belief that it would be an easy thing to do in the 
event of war. There was the inevitable political complication of par- 
ties struggling for public support and, in the end, there was the spec- 
tacle of President Madison accepting re-nomination (and eventual 
election) upon an actual pledge to declare war against Great Britain. 

These were the real causes of the struggle. England had no 
desire for it. Her every interest was in peace and her every effort was 
to preserve it. Canada, indeed, suffered during the early days of the 
war from actual instructions to the Governor-General, Sir George 
Prevost, to take things easy on the chance of an arrangement being 
patched up and the greatly burdened backs of the British soldier and 
sailor and taxpayer saved from the addition of a new conflict. At 
this time Wellington was still warring in the Peninsula, Napoleon was 
at the height of his power, and British money was being poured out 
like water to hold the allied nations of Europe from utter collapse. 
It was, in fact, the critical moment in the prolonged British conflict 
with a ofreat soldier who seemed now to have a continent at his feet 
and 400,000 of the finest troops ever trained by genius and con- 
quering skill ready at his hand. His only danger, the only check 
upon his colossal ambitions, came from the little country across the 
channel against whom the United States, on June 18, 18 12, formally 
declared war. 

If England, however, had reason to regret the addition of one more 
enemy and another conflict to the catalogue of her responsibilities 



t86 77//; H'.IA' OF 1812-15 

and ditliculties, the scattered Provinces of British America had still 
more apparent cause to do so. From the Detroit River to Halifax 
there were spread aloni^^ a thousand miles of border-line less than 5,000 
British troops. The population of the whole vast region was only 
300,000, men, women and children as against an American population 
of 8,000,000. The people of Upper Canada, where the bulk of the 
fighting was to take place, were only 77,000 in number. The result 
seemed so certain that Jefferson described it as "a mere matter of 
marching;" Eustis, the Secretary of War, declared that "we can take 
the Canadas without soldiers;" Henry Clay announced that "we 
have the Canadas as much under our command as she (Great Britain) 
has the ocean." 

GENERAL BROCK THE HERO OF THE WAR 

Much of the successful resistance of the Provinces to the ensuing- 
invasion of their territories by eleven different armies in two years is 
due to the wisdom and courage of Major-General Sir Isaac Brock who, 
in 1812, was Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada and Commander 
of the forces. Nearly every war, in every country, seems to produce 
some one central figure, and Brock is undeniably the hero of this impor- 
tant struggle — a war which decided the destiny of .half a continent and 
affected the whole future of Great Britain and its then infant Empire. 
He anticipated what was coming, warned the British authorities of its 
inevitability, and strove with limited means and shadowy support to 
prepare for the time of struggle. Addressing the Legislature of his 
Province on February 4, 1S12, and more than four months before the 
actual outbreak of the war, he described the situation of England and 
Upper Canada in stirring and historic words : 

"The glorious contest in which the Britisli I'-mjiire is engaged and the v.ist sacri- 
fice which Britain nobly offers to secure the independence oi other nations might be 
expected to stifle every feeling of envy and jealousy and at the same lime to excite 
the interest and command the admiration oi a free people ; but, regardless of such 



THE WAR OF 1S12-15 187 

general impressions, the American Government evinces a disposition calculated to 
impede and divide her efforts. England is not only interdicted the harbours of the 
United States while they afford a shelter to cruisers of her inveterate enemy, but she 
is likewise compelled to resign those maritime rights which she has so long exercised 
and enjoyed. Insulting threats are offered and hostile preparations actually com- 
menced ; and though not without hope that cool reflection and the dictates of justice 
may yet avert the calamities of war, I cannot be too urgent in recommending to your 
early attention the adoption of such measures as will best secure the internal peace of 
the country and defeat every hostile aggression." 

Within the last few lines of this speech there is a hint at internal 
disaffection. It was, indeed, an unfortunate fact that American set- 
tlers in certain districts of the Province had elected to the Leeisla- 
tores men who reflected their views and seriously hampered for a brief 
period the action of the Executive. Two of these so-called British 
legislators and citizens afterwards fled to the invaders' lines, and one 
of them, named Wilcocks, ultimately fell in fighting the country of 
his adoption and allegiance. But Brock knew that he could depend 
upon the mass of the people in his Province and that the loyalty of 
the men of 1783 and their sons would flame forth as brightly at this 
crisis as it had ever done in the days of revolution and migration. 
He told them truly, through an appeal to the Legislature, that the 
free spirit of a free people can never die and never be conquered, and 
that Great Britain would stand by them to her last man and her last 
gun in resisting the coming wanton invasion of British territory. 

Under all these circumstances, therefore, when the news of the 
declaration of war reached Brock, through a private source, he knew 
that everything would depend upon swift and sweeping action. He 
promptly sent some regulars to try and hold the Niagara frontier, 
summoned the Legislature, called out the militia, and made such 
preparations as he could pending the receipt of official information 
regarding the action of the United States. It did not come, but on 
July nth General Hull crossed the St. Clair River, from Detroit to 



i88 lllli WAR OF JS12-15 

Sandwich, with 2,000 men, and issued a braggadocio proclamation 
announcing protection to all non-combatants, declaring the certainty 
of conquest and relief from iiriiish " tyranny and oppression," and 
stating that if the British Government accepted assistance from its 
Indian subjects in resisting his invasion, " instant destruction " would 
be the lot of all who might be captured fighting beside an Indian con- 
tingent. Brock replied with a most eloquent, dignified and patriotic 
manifesto, and, on July 27th, met the Legislature with an address 
which was a model in sentiment and expression. By the 8th of 
August Hull had returned again to Detroit on hearing of the capture 
by Captain Roberts, in pursuance of orders from his chief, of the 
important American position at Michilimackinack. 

One week later Brock, with 320 regulars and 400 militia from 
York and Lincoln, assisted by the gallant Indian chief Tecumseh 
and some 600 followers, was crossing the St. Clair in pursuit of his 
enemy. Hull had been startled, first b)- a summons to surrender, and 
then by seeing the little British army crossing the river — General 
Brock "erect in his canoe, leading the way to battle," as Tecumseh 
in graphic Indian style afterwards described the event. Before an 
assault could be made, however, Hull and his entire force of 2,500 
men, including the 4th United States Regiment and its colours, 
surrendered. \\'ith the capitulation went the entire Territory 
of Michigan ; the town and port of Detroit, which practically 
commanded the whole of western Canada ; the Adauis war brief ; 
many stands of arms, a large quantity of much-needed stores, thirty- 
three pieces of cannon and the military chest. It had been a bold, a 
venturesome action on the part of Brock, and the result affected 
almost the entire struggle. It inspirited the militia from end to end 
of the Provinces ; it show(id manv of those havinij disloyal tendencies 
that it might be safer to at least appear loyal ; it electrified the masses 
with vigour and fresh determination. 




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THE WAR OF 1S12-15 191 

Following this all-important action Brock turned to meet greater 
difficulties than were presented by the enemy in the field. He had 
to encounter the weakness and vacillation of Sir George Prevost, 
who, as Governor-General and Commander of the forces, was direct- 
ing affairs from Quebec in the spirit of one who believed that hostili- 
ties would soon cease, and knew that the Ministry at home was 
anxious to do nothing that would intensify difficulties in that connec- 
tion. An armistice, arranged by Prevost, neutralized many of the 
benefits derived from the capture of Detroit ; orders from the same 
source prevented Brock from destroying American shipping on the 
Lakes which was in course of building, and which he forsaw might 
endanger the control of that most vital part of the situation ; com- 
mands actually issued for the evacuation of Detroit, though they 
were fortunately capable of evasion ; while the very documents and 
General Orders written by Prevost, were dispiriting in effect and un- 
fortunate in terms. 

But Brock turned to his militia, and, though refused the right of 
aggressive action which might have turned the whole tide of events, 
he proceeded with a system of organization which soon made his vol- 
unteer force as effective in health, spirit, drill and condition as well- 
equipped and experienced regular troops. And, through the sum- 
mary measures of imprisonment, or practical banishment, accorded 
those who showed an overt inclination to the American side — coupled 
with the magnetic influence of his own character and strong, personal 
confidence in the result of the struirffle — he obtained full control over 
the population as well as the Legislature. 

He made every effort to give the volunteers an opportunity of 
getting in their crops, and all over the Province the women them- 
selves helped by working in the fields. Throughout the conflict, 
indeed, the signal devotion of noble women was continuously added to 
a record of determined defence of their country by the men ; and the 



192 THE II'. I A' or iSi2-ifi 

incident of Laura SccorJ walkin*^ miles llirough snake-infest'.d 
swamps and a gloomy forest region to give a British force warning 
of the enemy's approach, was by no means an isolated instance of 
devotion. On the iSth of Septemijer, while his preparations were 
still in progress, Brock wrote his brother that in a short time he 
woiilil hear of a decisive action and added : "If I should be beaten 
the Province is lost." This reference to the gathering of S.ooo 
American troops upon the border, for invasion by way of Niagara, 
illustrates the signal Importance of the coming conflict at Oueenston 
Heights. Their intention was to take and hold this strong position 
as a fortified camp and from thence over-run the Province with 
troops brought at leisure from the immense reserves behind. At the 
same time, General Dearborn with a large force was to menace Mon- 
treal from New York -State by way of Lake Champlain, General 
Harrison was to invade the Upper Province from Michigan with 
6,000 men, and Commodore Chauncey was to take a force across 
Lake Ontario. 

I'.ATTI.E OK QUEEXSTON HEIGHTS 

The first part of this programme commenced on October 13th. 
with an attempted movement of 1,500 U. S. regulars and 2,500 militia 
across the Niagara River. About 1,100 troops, slowly followed by 
other detachments, succeeded in getting over and climbed the Heights 
of Oueenston in the face of what slight resistance could be offered by 
a British outpost. If the Americans could have held this position the 
result was certain and would probably have been much in the line of 
their expectations. Meantime, Sir Isaac Brock — unknown to himself 
he had been gazetted an extra Knight of the Bath one week before 
as a recognition of his victory at Detroit — had arrived from his nearby 
post at Fort George whence he had been watching matters. 

But before he could do anything further than show himself to his 
troops, size up the situation, hasten up his re-inforcements and shout 



THIi WAR OF iSr2-rs 193 

out an order to "Push on the York Vokinteers," to resist an Amer- 
ican contingent which at this point was making its way up the Heights, 
he fell with a ball in his breast and with only time to request that his 
death should be concealed from the soldiers. The re-inforcements, 
under Major-General Sheaffe, arrived shortly afterwards and, with 
800 men in hand, a bayonet charge was made upon the enemy which 
forced them over the Heights down toward the shore, many in their 
headlong retreat being dashed to pieces amidst the rocks, or drowned 
in attempting to cross the wild waters of the Niagara. The survivors 
surrendered to the number of 960 men, including Major-General 
Wadsworth, six Colonels and 56 other officers — amongst whom was 
the afterwards famous General Winfield Scott. The British loss was 
trifling in numbers, though amongst them was the gallant young Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel John McDonell, Attorney-General of the Province. 

Considerable as was the victory, however, and important as was 
the result to Upper Canada, nothing could counter-balance the death 
of the hero of the war. The inspiration of his memory remained, it 
is true, and was lasting in its effect, but the presence of his fertile 
intellect, his powers of rapid movement, his genius for military organ- 
ization were forever lost. Had he lived his name would probably 
have been a great one in the annals of the British army and the 
world. As it is, although his place is secure in the web and woof of 
Canadian history and in the hearts of its people, it has, in too many 
British and American records of war, been relegated to the position 
held by myriads of gallant officers who have simply done their duty 
and been killed in some obscure outpost skirmish. The vast import 
of the influences and issues decided by these first events of the strug- 
gle are in such cases disregarded or unknown. 

Winter was now at hand and, after a futile invasion from Buffalo 
under General Smyth which was repulsed by a few troops commanded 
by Colonel Cecil Bisshopp, the scene of the conflict goes for a brief 



194 THE WAR OF 1812-15 

moment to Lower Canada. I^revost had his difficulties there, as well 
as Brock in the other Province, but he was without the latter's vigour 
and determination. He had succeeded to the troubles of Sir James 
Craig's administration, and found a community which had been 
violently stirred by frothy agitations and by influences resulting from 
the peculiar racial conditions of the country. So great was the 
apparent discord that it had undoubtedly helped the war party in the 
States to .spread the belief that the passive French Canadians of 1776 
were now, at last, active in their antagonism to British rule. But 
when war was once declared the internal strife vanished as if by 
magic and the local Legislature showed immediate willingness to sup- 
port the Governor in all necessary steps — and in this proved superior 
in its loyalty to the little Assembly at York which had allowed Wil- 
cocks and his supporters to momentarily block procedure. 

The Governor-General was authorized to levy and equip 2,000 
men and, in case of invasion, to arm the whole militia of the Province. 
The members voted ^32,000 for purposes of defence and at the next 
Session granted ^15,000 a year for five years in order to pay the inter- 
est on the issue of army bills. It may be stated here that the Upper 
Canada Legislature, in February, 181 2, also recognized the immedi- 
ate need of money by authorizing General Brock to issue army bills 
to the extent of ^500,000 — two million dollars in the Halifax cur- 
rency of $4.00 to a pound which was so long and extensively used in 
the Provinces. The payment of the interest was guaranteed, and in 
January, 18 14, the authorized amount of issue was increased to 
^1,500,000 currency — six million dollars. The financial arrange- 
ments of the war in both Provinces were, indeed, excellently made. 
No public officer was allowed to profit by the use of these notes and 
the payment of the interest was carefully attended to on a circulation 
of which the highest point appears to have been $4,820,000. In 
December, 1815, it may be added, the bills were called in and 



THE WAR UP' 1S12-15 • 195 

redeemed by Sir Gordon Drummond, then Lieutenant-Governor of 
Upper Canada, and acting on behalf of the British Government. 

Meantime, to again refer to the campaign of 181 2, some 10,000 
men under General Dearborn had threatened the Lower Province 
from near Lake Champlain ; but after a brief demonstration which 
was checked by the Montreal militia under Lieutenant-Colonel de 
Salaberry, the American forces all along the line retired into winter 
quarters and the Canadas found that they had come through the first 
campaign of the war without a defeat or the loss of a foot of soil. 
Some progress, however, had been made by the Americans in obtain- 
ing that command of the Lakes which Brock had been so wisely anx- 
ious to avert at the commencement of the contest. 

THE CAMPAIGN OF 1813 

The campaign of 1S13 was not quite so pleasant an experience. 
It opened successfully for the British and Canadian forces. On Janu- 
ary 19th, Colonel Procter with 500 British regulars and 800 Indians 
under the Wyandotte chief, Roundhead, crossed the frozen St. Clair, 
and, two days later attacked General Winchester, who had about an 
equal number of men under him. After a severe battle in which he 
lost by death or wounded, 182 men, Procter Avon a decisive victory 
and took nearly 500 prisoners. The loss to the enemy in killed was 
between three and four hundred men. It was a dearly-purchased 
success, however, as it won for Procter a reputation which he sadly 
failed to live up to. Colonel George McDonell, who had raised a 
strong- regiment amongst the grallant Highland Catholics of the Glen- 
garry settlement, on February 23rd attacked Ogdensburg, in New York 
State — from which some predatory excursions had come during the 
winter — and captured eleven guns, a large quantity of ordinance and 
military stores and two armed schooners. Four officers and seventy 
privates were taken prisoners. 



196 THE WAR or iSl 2-1 5 

In Ajjril, however, Coinmodore Chauncey vvitli a fleet uf 14 
ships and 1,700 tioops, sailed from Sackett's Harbour, on the New 
York coast of Lake Ontario, for \'ork (Toronto) which was then a 
small place of 800 population, containing the Government build- 
ing's of the Province. Under the immediate command of Brieadier- 
General Pike the Americans landed on April 27th, but were for some 
time held in check by the determined resistance of two companies of 
the 8th Regiment and about 200 Canadian militia. The Fort, 
situated at some distance from the little town, was finally captured 
after an accidental explosion in which Pike and 260 of his men were 
killed. As the advance continued. General Sheafife withdrew his 
small force of recfulars from York and retreated to Kinsfston. The 
town then surrendered with some 250 militia, and, despite the terms 
of capitulation, was freely pillaged and all its public buildings burned. 
Even the Church was robbed of its plate and the Legislative Library 
looted. In this latter connection Chauncey expressed great indigna- 
tion and made a personal effort to restore some of the stolen 
books. 

Incidents of importance now came swiftly one upon another. 
On May 27th, Fort George, on the British side of the Niagara River, 
was captured by the Americans, and, two days later. Sir George 
Prevost was repulsed in an attack upon Sackett's Harbour. Early in 
June two American gunboats were captured on Lake Champlain, 
and on the 5th of the same month. Colonel Harvey — a soldier with 
some of Brock's brilliant qualities and afterwards Lieutenant- 
Governor of all the Maritime Provinces in turn — attacked in the 
night a large force of at least 3,500 Americans encamped at Burling- 
ton Heights (near the Hamilton of later days) and captured a num- 
ber of guns, two general officers, and over a hundred other officers 
and men. On the 24th of June Lieutenant Fitzgibbon, of the 49th 
Recjiment, liv a clever concealment of his numbers, forced the 



THE WAR OF 1812-15 197 

surrender of 544 American soldiers under Colonel Boerstler, not far 
from Fort George and Oueenston. He had only some 66 troops 
and 250 Indians in his command. During the next two months the 
British captured Black Rock, where they lost the gallant Colonel 
Bisshopp, and Fort Schlosser — both on the Niagara frontier. Platts- 
burg, on Lake Champlain, was captured and the public buildings 
burned in memory of York. The latter place was taken a second 
time by the Americans. 

Then came the disastrous British defeat on Lake Erie, where 
Captain Barclay, with six vessels and 300 seamen, was beaten by 
Commodore Perry, with nine vessels and double the number of men. 
Not only disastrous, but disgraceful, was the ensuing defeat of Gen- 
ernal Procter, near Moraviantown, by General Harrison who had 
driven him from Detroit and Amherstbursf. Procter was retreatinof 
steadily with some 400 troops, and 800 Indians under Tecumseh, pur- 
sued by the American force of 4,000 men. The battle was fought 
on October 5th, and the natural result followed, with, however, the 
added loss of Tecumseh. The disgrace to Procter, who fled early in 
the day and was afterwards court-martialed, censured and deprived 
of all command for six months, was not in defeat under such circum- 
stances, but in the utter lack of all proper military precautions, either 
at the time of conflict or during his previous retreat. The death of 
the o-reat Indian chief was one of the severest blows to the British 
cause in the whole campaign. It was more important even than the 
fact that this victory placed the entire western part of the Province in 
American hands. The territory might be won back, the leader never. 
Tecumseh was, indeed, a savage of heroic mould, one who inspired 
victory, and who, when acting with men such as Brock or Harvey, was 
almost invincible. His Indians would do anything for him — even 
refrain from massacre or cruelty — and the fear of him felt by the Ameri- 
cans was shown in the unfortunate indignities offered to his corpse. 



198 THE WAR OF 1812-15 

The next few months saw some events of brifjht import, and 
aLtcntion must now be transferred to Lower Canada. The French- 
Canadians earnestly and enthusiastically showed their love for the 
land of tlieir birth and home by turning out in large numbers and 
fighting bravely wherever required — notably on the memorable field 
of Chateauguay. 

I 

ATTEMPTS TO CAPTURE MONTREAL 

By October an army of 8,000 men had been collected at 
Sackett's Harbour, N. Y., under Generals Wilkinson and Boyd, 
for the descent upon Montreal by way of the St. Lawrence. As 
these forces descended the river they were followed by a small 
and compact body of British troops under Colonels Pearson, Harvey, 
Morrison and Plenderleath, accompanied by eight gun-boats and three 
field-pieces which did much damage to the enemy. On November 
11th, Wilkinson and his main army were with the flotilla near Pres- 
cott and on the way to effect a junction with an army under General 
Hampton which was to meet them at the mouth of the Chateauguay. 
General Boyd, with 2,500 men, was marching along the shore fol- 
lowed by 800 British troops under Colonel Morrison who had 
resolved to attack the enemy at a place called Chrystler's Farm. The 
result was one of the most complete victories of the war, the Ameri- 
cans losing many prisoners besides 339 officers and men. killed or 
wounded. The British loss was 181. Boyd immediately returned to 
his boats and joined Wilkinson. They then proceeded to the place 
.at which the junction with Hampton was to be made and from 
whence they were to advance upon Montreal. 

Meanwhile, Hampton had marched from Lake Champlain with 
7,000 men toward the mouth of the Chateauguay. .\t this point, and 
amid the nalural difficulties of forest surroundinijs, he was met on the 
night of October 2^i\\ by Colonel de Salaberry in command of 300 
French-Canadian militia and a few Indians and supported by Colonel 




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THE WAR OF lS/2-lj 201 

McDonell with another French contingent of 600 men, who had made 
the most rapid forced march in Canadian history and had reached 
Chateauguay the day before the battle. The Americans advanced 
upon the hidden first Hne with 4,000 men, but, on driving it back, they 
met the second line under Colonel McDonell and, there, encountered 
the stratagem of buglers placed at considerable distances apart and 
sounding their instruments so as to give the impression of large num- 
bers, while at the same time the bewildering yells and war-cries of 
some fifty scattered Indians immensely increased the uproar and 
tumult. The immediate result was the defeat of the American forces, 
their retreat on the following day and their consequent failure to 
meet Wilkinson at the mouth of the Chateauguay. 

This failure involved the collapse of an elaborate campaign of 
15,000 men for the capture of Montreal, through the timely gallantry 
and clever leadership of two little armies of about 2,000 men alto- 
gether. One of the curious incidents of the battle of Chateauguay was 
when Colonel de Salaberry — his first line of troops being forced back 
by overwhelming numbers — held his own ground in the darkness with 
a bugler boy whom he caused to sound the advance for McDonell — 
thus giving the latter an opportunity to put into effect the stratagem 
which led the American General to think he was opposed by several 
thousand men. A less pleasing incident was the mean and untruth- 
ful manner in which Prevost endeavoured in his despatches to take the 
whole credit of this victory to himself.* Despite this, the facts became 
known — largely through the intervention of H. R. H. the Duke of 
Kent, who had often proved himself a friend to De Salaberry — and at 
the end of the war McDonell and De Salaberry were each decorated 
with a C. B. 

In Upper Canada during this period there had been another 
glaring evidence of Prevost's incapacity. Frightened by the apparent 

* Notably that of 31st of October, 1813. 



404 THE WAR OF iSlz-l^ 

results of Procter's defeat near Moraviantown, he had ordered the 
British commander at Burlington and York (General Vincent) to 
abandon all his posts and retire upon Kingston. Had this been done 
the Upper Province would have been practically in American hands. 
Instead of doing so, however, Vincent maintained his ground, and 
Colonel Murray, with some 378 regulars and a few volunteers and 
Indians, was given permission some weeks later to advance upon the 
enemy who, with 2,700 men under General McClure, was holding 
Fort George. On December loth the latter evacuated the Fort, but, 
before doing so wantonly and cruelly burned to the ground the 
neio-hbouring village (and one-time capital) of Newark. It was a 
cold winter's night, and the beautiful little village contained chiefly 
women and children — the men being either away at the front or 
prisoners across the river. The unfortunate inhabitants were driven 
into the snow without shelter and in miiny cases very scantily 
clothed. British retribution was swift. The American Fort Niagara, 
just across the river, was promptly stormed and held until the end of 
the war, and the neighbouring villages of Lewistown, Youngstown, 
Manchester and Tuscarora were burned. These events closed the 
campaign of 18 13, at the end of which the Americans only held 
possession of Amherstburg, on the frontier of Upper Canada, and, 
besides losing all the benefits of Harrison's success against the inca- 
pable Procter, had also lost Fort Niagara on the American side and 
with it the control of the frontier in that direction. 

Tlir-: STRUGGLE OK 1814 

General Sir Gordon I^rummond, a brave and able ofificer, had 
meanwhile, become Administrator and Commander in Upper Canada, 
and this fact had much influence upon the succeeding struggle of 
1814. This last campaign of the war commenced with another 
advance from Lake Champlain by 4,000 men under General Wilkin- 
son. It was checked, and eventually repulsed o\\ March 30th by a 



rilE WAR OF 1812-15 203 

gallant handful of some 300 men commanded by Major Handcock, 
at Lacolle's Mill — a small stone buildinor on the Lacolle River, and 
about a third of the way between Plattsburg and Montreal. A little 
later Michilimackinac was relieved by Colonel McDonell, and in May 
Sir Gordon Drummond and Sir James Yeo, the naval Commander, 
captured Fort Oswego on the New York side of Lake Ontario, 
together with some valuable naval stores. Meantime, some minor 
defeats had been encountered by British detachments, and early in 
July Major-General Brown, with 5,000 troops, backed by 4.000 New 
York militia, which had been ordered out and authorized for the war, 
invaded Upper Canada from Buffalo. To meet this attack Drum- 
mond had about 4,000 effective regulars, depleted however, by the 
necessity of garrisoning a number of important posts. His difficul- 
ties in meeting the invasion Avere also increased by the seeming 
impossibility of making Prevost understand the situation and the need 
of re-inforcements. The latter could only see the menace offered to 
Lower Canada by the massed forces at Lake Champlain. 

Fort Erie surrendered to the Americans on July 3d, and General 
Riall was defeated at Chippewa two days later, with the loss of 5 1 1 
men killed or wounded. The victorious American advance was 
checked, however, at Lundy's Lane, where Sir Gordon Drummond, 
who had come up from Kingston with 800 men, assumed command, 
and on July 25th, within sound of the roar of Niagara Falls and in 
the most beautiful part of a picturesque and fertile region, there was 
fought the fiercest battle of the whole war, and one which continued 
during the greater part of a dark night. The victory is variously 
claimed, but the bare facts are that, after trying for six hours with 
5,000 men to force a British position held by half that number, 
Brown had to retire to Chippewa with a loss of 930 men as against 
Drummond's loss of 870, and with his advance effectually checked. 
On the 26th he retreated to Fort Erie, and was there shortly after 



204 rni: WAR OF 1S12-15 

attacked unsuccessfully by the British with a loss to the latter of 
500 men. Until September, however, he was blockaded within the 
walls of the Fort. 

The struggle with Napoleon in Europe was now temporarily 
over, and 16,000 trained and experienced British troops had been, 
meanwhile, landed at Quebec. Prevost advanced with a force of 
1 2,000 of these troops to Plattsburg, where he was to co-operate with 
the British fleet on Lake Champlain. The latter was defeated, how- 
ever, and the British general, with an army which, under Brock, 
might have menaced New York City itself, ignominiously retreated 
in the face of two or three thousand American soldiers.* So far as 
the Canadas were concerned territorially this practically ended the 
war. Despite Prevost's disgrace at Plattsburg, the campaign for the 
year terminated with the British control of Lake Ontario — although 
the Americans were masters of Lake Erie — and with their possession 
of several forts on American soil, to say nothing of a portion of the 
State of Maine. 

In the Maritime Provinces the struggle had not been so severely 
felt. Major-General Sherbrooke was Lieutenant-Governor of Nova 
Scotia and, through the vicinity of the British fleet at Halifax and 
the presence of a sufficient number of regulars, was able in 1S14 to 
make a series of attacks upon the coast and frontier of Maine until 
the whole reeion from Penobscot to the St. Croix was in British 
hands. Sherbrooke had also been sending troops up to Canada 
whenever possible and the march of the 104th Regiment in Febru- 
ary, 181 3, through hundreds of miles of frozen wilderness, was of 
special interest as well as importance. 

Elsewhere on sea and land the war had been equally varied. A 
number of naval victories were won by the United States as well as 
by Great Britain but, excluding the actions fought in Canadian waters, 

* He was recalled and only e&caped the condemnation of a Court Martial by death. 



THE WAR OF 1S12-T5 205 

there seems in nearly every case of American victory to have been a 
great superiority on their part in men, guns, metal and tonnage. The 
purely British part of the campaign of 1814 included the capture of 
the City of Washington and the burning of its public buildings in 
revenge for the previous harrying of the Niagara frontier and the 
burnings of York and Newark. An unsuccessful attempt was also 
made to capture New Orleans. The terrible bloodshed of this last 
struggle of the war — over 3,000 British troops were reported killed, 
wounded or missino- — was the result of isjnorance of the fact that on 
December 24, 1814. a treaty of peace had been signed at Ghent. 

THE KFFECTS OF THE STRUGGLE 

The immediate effects of the struggle are clear upon the pages 
of history. The Americans obtained not a foot of British territory 
and not a solitary sentimental advantage. Their seaboard was insulted 
and injured, their capital city partially destroyed and 3,000 of their 
vessels captured. The immense gain to their carrying-trade which 
had previously accrued as a result of England's conflict with Napo- 
leon was neutralized, while their annual exports were reduced to 
almost nothing and their commercial classes nearly ruined. A vast 
war-tax was incurred and New England rendered disaffected for years 
to come. The twin questions of right of search and the position of 
neutrals in time of war which had been the nominal causes of the 
conflict were not even mentioned in the Treaty of Ghent. Some 
military and naval glory was won, but the odds were in favour of the 
United States throughout the struggle and, when England's hands 
were finally freed by Wellington's march upon Paris, the war 
ceased. In many of these conflicts, however, both on sea and land — 
notably in the famous duel of the Chesapeake and the Shannon when 
Sir Provo Wallis, of Nova Scotian birth, laid the foundation of fame 
and fortune — United States soldiers and seamen showed all the 
courage and skill of the race from which they had sprung. 



206 THE WAR OF 1812-15 

To Great Britain tiie war had been only one more military and 
naval burden. It added to her difficulties in fighting France, subsi- 
dizing Europe and holding the seas against the sweeping ambitions of 
Napoleon. But her struggle for life or death had been so prolonged 
in this connection and the shadow of its wings so dark and menacing, 
that the conflict in Canada did not then, and has not since, attracted 
the attention it deserved. While this was natural enough at that 
period, the time has now come when the position should be changed 
and the memories of Brock and De Salaberry, Morrison and McDonell, 
Harvey and Drummond, be given their place in the historic pantheon 
of Empire. Canadian difficulties in the struggle should be under- 
stood, the courage of its people comprehended, the results of the con- 
flict appreciated. The conflict meant more than the mere details of 
skirmishes, battles and the rout of invading armies would indicate. It 
involved considerations greater than may be seen in the ordinarj' 
record of campaigns in which the Canadian militia and British regu- 
lars appear as able to hold their own in a prolonged struggle. 

That a population of 500,000 people, scattered over widely sun- 
dered areas, should be able, almost unaided, to thus successfully 
oppose the aggressive action of an organized republic of eight millions 
was an extraordinary military performance and it is not unnatural 
that, in considering the record and the result, it has been chieflv done 
from the military standpoint. To the up-building of Canada, how- 
ever, the war holds a place not dissimilar in national import to that 
of the Revolution in United States history. 

It consolidated the: British sentiment of the whole population 
from the shores of Lake Huron to the coasts of the Atlantic. It 
eliminated much of the disloyal element which was beginning to eat 
into the vitals of Provincial life in Upper Canada ; and modified in 
some measure the force of the American spirit which remained in 
the hearts of a section of its settlers. It checked the ijrowth of 



'J HE WAR OF iSi2-r5 207 

Republicanism amongst the French of Lower Canada and helped to 
prevent the Rebellion of 1S37 in that Province from being the rising of 
a whole people united in political sympathies — as were its leaders — 
with the great and growing population to the south. It made the 
authorities of the Roman Catholic Church in the same part of the 
country feel once more as they did when the Continental Congress 
of 1775 attacked the Quebec Act that the only visible danger to what 
they considered the sacred rights and privileges of their faith came 
from the other side of the international line. It, for a time, brought 
Canadians of French and Enijlish extraction together in defence of 
their hearths and homes and laid in this fact an almost invisible 
foundation for that seemingly vain vision — the permanent Federal 
Union of British America for purposes of common defence, interests 
and government. It affected powerful religious organizations, such 
as the Methodist denomination, which were becoming dependent on 
American pulpits, supplies and polity. It affected social life and cus- 
toms by drawing still more distinct the Loyalist line against innova- 
tions from the other side of the border. Finally, it greatly affected 
political development and assured the ultimate success of those who 
strove honestly, though sometimes mistakenly in detail, to preserve 
and promote the permanent acceptance of British, as opposed to 
American, principles of government upon the northern half of the 
continent. 



I 



CHAPTER X 

An Era of Agitation 

N the early years of the century there began to develop in the 
Canadas — and especially in Lower Canada as Quebec had come 
to be called — the seeds of a violent constitutional agitation. It 
arose in the latter Province out of the well-intentioned but mistaken 
policy of giving the forms of free self-government to a people who 
knew nothing of the reality. To confer British institutions upon men 
of French origin was in itself an extraordinary proceeding ; but when 
it is remembered that these French-Canadians had been, in 1791, only 
a generation removed from the subjects of France in the most despotic 
of Bourbon days, and that they had changed very slightly since that time 
in either character, experience, or knowledge it seems still more so. 

INFLUENCE OF TliE rOl.mCIAN 

The habitant of that period, and during the succeeding thirtv 
years, knew nothing of government except in traditional memories of 
autocracy and in his present perception of the position of his Seigneur 
as having control of the land and its taxation and his Priest as havingf 
charge of his soul, his morals, and his pleasures. As time passed 
however, he began to see another influence — the politician or 
demagogue — and was assured that the Encrlish Parliament had given 
to the French-Canadians an Assembly by which they were to govern 
their own country ; but that the English in Lower Canada would not 
allow it full control. The tyranny of the Executive Council, which 
advised the Governor-General, and of the Legislative Council, which 
threw out any legislation of an advanced kind emanating from the 
Assembly, were pourtrayed to him in vivid colours. 
20a 



AN ERA OF AG IT A TION 2 1 1 

The habitant naturally did not understand matters very clearly. 
He began to believe that it was a question of English against French 
and that the Assembly was a weapon granted by Providence with 
which to smite the tyrants whom an English King had placed in 
power. The French-Canadian peasant can hardly be blamed for this. 
He had not advanced in education as he had advanced in the 
responsibilities of government. The voter going to the polls of 
Lower Canada in 1800, or 1820, knew as much of the principles of 
self-government as his father had done in the days of Bigot or 
his ofrandfather under Louis XIV. He had no knowledge of 
even the rudiments of municipal control and management, to say 
nothing of the theories and precedents and principles and intricate 
practices of Parliamentary rule. He was plunged in an instant into 
a condition of affairs which It had taken centuries of evolution and 
strucrcrle and civil war to reach In Engrland itself ; and It was little 
wonder if he failed to understand the workings of the system. Still 
less surprising was it that the whisperings of agitators and the 
traditions of racial feeling should have stirred him up to use his 
privileges in order to obtain more and to vent, at the same time, his 
prejudices against an alien authority which In certain phases, and 
despite the best of intentions, was naturally antagonistic to him. 

RACIAL AND CLAS.S HOSTILITY 

The English people in Quebec and Montreal comprised the 
governing class of the community and, in time, included a large 
mercantile and commercial element. The French on the other hand 
were essentially rural and agricultural in occupation and their material 
Interests were therefore easily made to appear in antagonism to those 
of the urban centres. So that, as years passed on, within the circle 
of racial hostility there was to be found a smaller circle of class 
hostility. Both found expression in the Legislature and in certain 
newspapers of the rabid type. As the ensuing political appeals and 



412 .IX /CA'.I OF AGITATrON 

denunciations and explanations were in different languages they 
altogether failed to reach the other side and consequently intensified 
the racial feeling -especially on the part of the French masses. 

The Seigneurs were not as numerous as in the days before the 
Conquest, hut they were still a strong class in the community and 
with a tendency to lend their influence to moderate councils. The 
Governors, both before and after the period of military rule, did their 
utmost to conciliate the French gentry ; and onh- a lack of forceful- 
ness in character and ability in statecraft seems to have prevented 
the latter from sharing considerably in the government. More 
than one of the despatches sent to the Colonial Ofifice during this 
period bear testimony to the paucity of capable and suitable French- 
Canadians from whom members of the Councils might be chosen. 
The inevitable result of all this was that iren of British birth or 
extractifiii held the reins of power, and guarded, more or less 
securely, the avenues of approach to office. 

Though the administrations of Lord Amherst and General 
Murray, General Carleton and General Haldimand, Lord Dorchester* 
and General Prescott — 1760 to 1799 — were more or less military in 
their nature, the Assembly, which was first organized in 1792, 
proved comparatively amenable to the necessities of the situation 
and was not yet filled with too great a sense of its power and oppor- 
tunities. The first meeting of this body, however, gave some faint 
indications of what was coming. It passed a loyal Address to the 
King, which proved the first of a long .series of similar Resolutions, 
which were introduced from time to time whenever some innovation 
was about to be proposed, or some old proposal to be renewed and 
pressed in varying degrees of violence. It preceded this action by 
the very natural selection of a French-Canadian as Speaker, and 

• Guy Carleton. created Baron Dorchester in 1786, and appointed for the second time as Governor-General of British 
America, 



AN ERA OF AGIT.nrON 213 

followed it up by a Resolution demanding- the use of both the French 
and English languages in debate and in the published documents of 
the Assembly. The membership of the House of Assembly, it may 
be added, numbered fifty at this time, and was almost entirely French, 
while the Legislative Council numbered fifteen, and was almost en- 
tirely English in composition. 

Gradually, disputes between the two bodies developed, and by 
the opening of the century promised very clearly to produce a violent 
future. The Assembly claimed full control of the revenues, without 
knowing how to make the necessary constitutional changes, and with- 
out proposing anything practicable in the way of a new system. As 
things were the Governor was really responsible to the Crown — or 
the British Cabinet — for his administration of funds which came in 
part from excise and customs levied under Imperial enactment, in 
part from taxes controlled by the Assembly and Council together 
and in part from moneys contributed by the Imperial Government to 
the payment of salaries and for special purposes of military necessity. 

It was a difficult enough problem had there been no racial 
antagonisms, or religious complications, or diverse languages. No 
party in Quebec, either in 1800, or in 1837 when the troubles had 
developed into rebellion, understood or demanded a full system of 
Ministerial government and responsibility such as the Province and 
Dominion have to-day. This point is of the greatest importance 
and is usually overlooked in the study of these times. Looking back 
now it is easy to see that the Council was intended as a " buffef " 
between the Assembly and the King's Representative ; that it did 
not serve this purpose very long as the French masses soon came to 
consider the two identical ; that there were no departments of gov- 
ernment administrating different matters and responsible to Parlia- 
ment for the performance of duty and, especially, for the management 
of moneys ; that there was no Premier responsible to the Assembly 



214 AN ERA OF AGITATION 

for the composition of his Cabinet and the policy of his Province, 
and that none was asked for ; that the spirit which soon showed itself 
amonest the leaders of the French-Canadians was not one calculated 
to encourage the formulation from England of schemes for a Minis- 
terial responsibility which was not understood and practised, even 
there, as it was after the days of the Reform Bill ; that no glim- 
mering had yet come to either English Liberals or Tories of a Colo- 
nial Governor acting as the constitutional sovereign of a free people 
and yet representing in v&xy real fashion the Crown of the Empire. 
These things can form no part of any written constitution, and could 
only develop out of passing years and growing experience. 

THE PROBLEM AFTER THE WAR OF l8l2 

The problem, as it revived after the War of 1812, was ver)' 
complex and can only be fairly and fully understood by entire dis- 
association from the stormy debates and feelings of the times, and 
from the prejudices perpetuated by much historical writing of a 
biased character. It may be taken for granted, and as a basis fo*" 
any such study of the situation, that there was good in all parties to 
the prolonged dispute, In all the Provinces. The Imperial Govern- 
ment acted from the first without a selfish or unworthy motive, and 
despite the limitless trouble whicli the Colonial controversies neces- 
sarily created. It was always anxious to conciliate factions, always 
ready to concede every claim which seemed safe from the standpoint 
of the time, always desirous of sending good men to administer 
affairs in an honest and honourable fashion. But the mistake of the 
Colonial Office was in its failure to preserve continuity of policy, its 
misfortune was in being subject to party changes at home, its fault — 
a very natural one — was in not always understanding the situation 
clearly. 

The Governors of the Colonies in British America were upon 
the whole a splendid class of men. No more honourable and able 



AN ERA OF AGITATION 215 

administrators can be found in the pages of history than Lord Dor- 
chester, Sir Frederick Haldimand, Sir J. Coape Sherbrooke, the Earl 
of Dalhoijsie, Sir John Wentworth, Sir Peregrine Maitland, Major- 
General Simcoe, Sir John Colborne (Lord Seaton), Sir Howard 
Douglas or Sir John Harvey. There were exceptions, of course, 
but even where ability or tact was lacking there is not in all Canadian 
annals the case of a British Governor guilty of dishonourable or 
mean public actions — unless it be the conduct of Sir George Prevost 
in the War of 18 12, when acting as a military leader.- This is an 
excellent record in the making of a young country. Yet many of the 
Governors were intensely unpopular. In Lower Canada the feeling 
v/as largely racial, and applied to all who did not come out with the 
deliberate object of giving the majority everything that they asked 
for. In the other Provinces it was due to their identification with a 
party in the Colony — the party of pronounced loyalty and of the 
power which goes with the possession of office. 

It is really hard to see how they could have avoided this. To 
nearly all of them, from Sir James Craig upwards, the French party 
in Lower Canada meant danger to British interests and supremacy ; 
the Radical party in Upper Canada meant republicanism, American 
institutions, and annexation efforts which might involve war with the 
United States. To grant privileges to the more moderate and loyal 
opposition party in the Maritime Provinces which it was not deemed 
wise to give in the Canadas was, of course, impossible. But many of 
them were not wise in details of administration and in the treatment 
of opponents ; while the fact of having no Premier, or responsible 
Ministry, left them open to all the ills of personal attack and political 
bitterness — often a sorry position for the Sovereign's Representative 
to be placed in. 

The governing party in these years stood for much that Canadi- 
ans now hold dear. In Lower Canada they believed in the protection 



2i6 A\' ERA or AGITATIO.W 

uf the British minority in a British country and, judj^incj by the 
debates in the French House of Assembly and the character of the 
conflict which eventually developed, the only way this protection 
could have been maintained in that period of constitutional ignorance 
and racial bitterness was by the policy of English administration and 
through the check afforded by an English Council controlling the 
legislation of a French Assembly. In the other Provinces they stood 
for a belief, ground into the very marrow of the Loyalist's bones by 
experience in the American Revolution, that the Governor should 
have considerable powers, should wield them consistently and firmly 
and should give no countenance to democracy. To the dominant party 
in these years democracy spelt republicanism and the latter involved 
everything which they most detested, which they had fought against 
long and strenuously and to avoid the results of wliich they had 
suffered all the privations of pioneer life. Moreover, they believed 
themselves, not without reason, to be the makers of English-speaking 
Canada and naturally resented the criticism of ignorant and indiffer- 
ent new-comers and the free antagonism of Radical asritators from 
other lands. 

VIEWS ANM) MISTAKES OK THE COVERMNr. PAKTIES 

Their mistake was in being too autocratic and exclusive, in not 
trying to teach the incoming population more of the history of the 
past, in making the Government appear to the masses as not the 
representative of a great principle, which in large measure it really 
and honestly was, but as an oligarchy based upon privilege and formed 
from a class. On the other hand the people had much to complain 
of. In Lower Canada, French-Canadians were practically excluded 
from the Councils and the Bench. There were occasional irregulari- 
ties in the administration of justice. There was much offensiveness 
in the autocratic bearing of English appointees to high position. 
There was natural antagfonism between the ao-ricultural and rural 



AN ERA OF AGITATION 217 

interests of the French and the mercantile and city interests of the 
English. There was a not unreasonable and intense popular desire 
to control the purse-strings of the Province. There was objection 
to the officials holding several positions at the same time, to Judges 
sitting in the Legislative Council, to a Protestant Bishop sharing in 
the administration of secular affairs. 

Yet the settlement of these matters was rendered difficult, if not 
impossible, by the position which the French majority in the Assem- 
bly a.ssumed. When a Frenchman was offered and accepted a place 
on the Council, or the Bench, he lost all influence and reputation 
amongst his compatriots. When any trivial fault was found to be a 
fact in the administration of justice, it became the basis for wild and 
reckless onslaughts upon all the Judges. The exclusiveness of the 
English minority was well matched by that of the French majority 
and all the lavish hospitality and evident good-will of successive Gov- 
ernors could not brine the races together. Over and over again it 
was proposed by the Government that Judges should be made inde- 
pendent of politics and excluded from seats in the Councils, but the 
measure always broke upon the rock of the Assembly's concurrent 
demand to control the payment and amount of their salaries and, 
therefore, to control the actual appointments and the Bench itself. 

In Upper Canada and in the Provinces by the sea, as new set- 
tlers poured in, they found a situation which was naturally not alto- 
gether palatable to them. Between 1800 and 1812 a large number of 
Americans came to Upper Canada. In 1816 disbanded soldiers and 
officers from the armies which had so long fought Napoleon migrated 
in large bodies to British America. In 1831, there were 34,000 new 
settlers, while in the four years preceeding 1829 there had been 
160,000 of them. Into the Maritime Provinces came a large influx 
of Scotchmen and not a few Americans. These new-comers were of 
all schools of thought — Tory and Whig and Radical and Republican. 



2i8 AX ERA OF AGITATIOX 

They were of all nationalities — English and Welsh and Scotch and 
Irish and Americans chiefly. They brought with them aggressive 
views very frequently out of touch with, if not bitterly opposed to, 
the opinions of the Loyalist rulers of the country. They found 
themselves with practically no voice in public affairs owing to the 
veto of the Legislative Council upon Assembly enactments and the 
entrenched position of the Loyalists behind a bulwark of prestige, 
custom, social influence, gradually growing wealth and the power of 
the strong and practically established Church of England. 

Naturally, the Scotch and English Radicals, all the men who had 
left the Old Land from motives of discontent, the Irish Catholics and 
English Methodists and the American settlers generally, resented 
the situation and organized, as time went by, in opposition to it and 
to the men who ruled the Province. They had much of right on their 
side, but it was marred in immediate effect and in the eye of impar- 
tial history by violence of language and unnecessary fierceness of agi- 
tation ; by leaders who professed a democracy not far from American 
republicanism in character ; by a disloyalty amongst American set- 
tlers especially, which showed itself strongly in the stern struggle of 
1812 and in the subsequent troubles of 1S37 ; by an utter indiffer- 
ence to the undoubted services of the Loyalists to the country and 
empire ; by demanding impossibilities without clearly knowing what 
they themselves wanted ; by a desire to obtain office at least as strong 
as the much-abused wish of the dominant party to retain it. In the 
Maritime Provinces this analysis holds good except that the actively 
disloyal factor has to be eliminatetl from the purview as well as some- 
thiniT of the violence of acritation and sentiment. 

The details of the struggle in the two Canadas which led up to 
the Rebellion of 1837 and which were fought under the conditions 
already outlined must be briefly told, though in reality the story is a 





o 
u 



AN ERA OF AGITATION 221 

long and complicated one.* In the Lower Province the racial com- 
plication ran through every measure proposed by the Assembly and 
opposed by the Council and must always be borne in mind in reading 
any narrative of the events of that period. The first important con- 
flict began in iSo8 with the arrival of Sir James Henry Craig as 
Governor-General. There had been mutterings of trouble before, 
demands on the part of the Assembly for fuller control of appoint- 
ments and of the revenues, and plentiful denunciation of the Council 
as an alien and intrusive body. Strong accusations of disloyalty and 
of a desire for absolute French ascendency had been the principal 
response. The strife was lulled for a time by the alarm of war with 
the States, but upon its temporary subsidence and the arrival of Sir 
James Craig it burst forth with redoubled violence. The new Governor 
was a brave and distinguished soldier, but obstinate, and without 
much tact or the faculty of conciliation. His tendency of thought 
was to fear the French, to dislike the placing of additional power in 
their hands, and to feel the full force of the arguments naturally 
brought before him by his English advisers. The great cry of the 
moment was the prohibition of Judges sitting in the Councils, and 
this took up the time of the Assembly to the signal detriment of the 
questions of defence which the Governor naturally considered as 
.much more important. 

The House was dissolved after several sessions of useless recrimi- 
nation and abuse and came back with a stronger French membership 
than before. Sir James and the Council stood by the Judges, who 
were being very bitterly and unjustly handled, and refused to debar 
them from the body in which their presence was undoubtedly useful 
in those days of limited culture and independence of position, although 

* Two bulky volumes are devoted to the Rebellion in Upper Canada by John Charles Dent, and to the Life ot 
W. L. Mackenzie by Charles Lindsey ; while F. X. Garneau has dealt at length with the Lower Canada troubles. These 
and many other volumes upon various branches of the subject are valuable to the student, but are nearly always one- 
sided in treatment thereol. 



222 AN ERA OF AGITATION 

alien to the full and free system of to-day. Added disputes arose 
over the expenditures of the Government — a phrase which in this 
period meant the Governor and the inner circle of an irresponsible 
Executive — until in despair of obtaining either legislation or peace, 
the Leo^islature was again dissolved. 

Tin-: DIFFICULTY OF THE GOVERNOR'S POSITION 

What was the unfortunate Governor from tliis time onward to 
do ? He could not give control of all the finances to the Assembly 
without establishing a Ministry responsible to that body, and this the 
Home Government could not yrant as involving- the handinjjf of abso- 
lute power in the Province over to a French majority which every day 
showed itself more ao-grressive and more anti-British. Moreover, a not 
inconsiderable portion of the revenue still came from England, or from 
the army chest, which was more or less under the Governor's con- 
trol. The election was of the fiercest character. Declamation and 
proclamation, secret meetings and treasonable newspaper comments, 
the seizure of Le Canadian and imprisonment of particularly violent 
politicians, followed, until the French press described the period as a 
" Reign of Terror." The Assembly came back with its French majority 
increased, Sir James received a rebuke from the Colonial Ofifice — for 
getting into trouble at a critical time, it may be presumed — and, in 
the end, the Judges were disqualified from sitting in the Council. Biit 
the greater financial issue remained. 

The American war now intervened and cast its minoled sunshine 
and shadow over everything. Loyalty, the power of the Church, a 
desire to retain their special privileges, antagonism to republican 
institutions, a measure of appreciation for British generosity, com- 
bined in differing de^jrees of force to throw the French-Canadians into 
the strues'le with valuable results to British streoi^'th. Internal strife 
largely ceased during the next two years and the French Assembly, 
delighted over the success at Chateauguay, voted Sir George Prevost, 



AN ERA OF ACrrATION 223 

as the new Governor-in-Chief, all the grants of money he desired. But 
when the war was over (before, indeed, it could be called so) the old 
trouble revived and the Assembly demanded the impeachment of 
Chief Justice Sewell and Judge Monk on charges of official corruption 
which could never be proved and which appear to have been simply the 
product of a feeling that these men were the principal antagonists to 
the claims advanced by the popular body. Jonathan Sewell was the 
leader of the English element in Lower Canada and Chief Justice of 
the Province from 1808 to 1838. His probity was really above 
reproach, his character and honour of the highest, his culture and 
attainments and social qualities most marked. But he was an intense 
believer in the necessity of English supremacy in the Government of 
Lower Canada, a vigorous opponent of Roman Catholicism, an 
unfriendly critic of the French character and pretentions. 

The impeachment was not, of course, agreed to by the Legisla- 
tive Council, and the Governor very properly refused to take it up. 
The Chief Justice, however, went to England and defied his accusers 
to prove their allegations at the Colonial Office. They did not 
attempt to do so in any other court than that of the inflamed public 
opinion of the Province and Sewell, after being well received in Lon- 
don, returned to Quebec in natural triumph. He had made his visit 
memorable in a wider public sense by suggesting and pressing a 
scheme for the federation of British North America. But the time 
was, of course, premature. The trouble over the finances now revived. 
In 1809 the Assembly had offered to pay the expenses of the Civil 
List in return for a right to eliminate any salaries objected to. As 
this meant control of the officials by a partisan Assembly and a dis- 
tinct infraction of the Governor's prerogative, as then understood, the 
Council had rejected the proposal. Now, in 1816, the Imperial Gov- 
ernment suggested a compromise by which the grant of a stated sum 
was to be made each year — as is now the custom — without changing 



224 AN ERA OF AGir.rnON 

the items of the grant. For a brief period this plan worked satisfac- 
torily. In 1S19, however, an increase was asked and refused. The 
Appropriation Bill, less the extra amount, was rejected by the Council 
and a dead-lock occurred which was followed by the new election con- 
sequent upon the death of King George III. 

PAPINEAU A I'OI'ULAR OKATOR AM) AGITATOR 

The popular hero of the moment was now Louis Joseph Papi- 
neau. Brilliant in oratory beyond any other product of French 
Canada, splendid in physique and popular in manner, democratic in 
belief and aristocratic in appearance and birth, rash in utterance and 
policy, he was eminently the man to stir French passions and preju- 
dices to a white heat and to play upon the ignorance and fancies of 
the people as a great musician plays upon the hearts of his hearers. 
He became, in 1820, Speaker of the Assembly and was in the fullest 
possession of his great personal powers. At the same time there 
came to Quebec the Earl of Dalhousie as Governor-General. He 
was a man of boundless hospitality and kindliness, the most popular, 
perhaps, of Nova Scotian Governors of this period, the founder of 
Dalhousie College at Halifax, a well-known patron of agriculture and 
the arts. In Lower Canada he early established an Agricultural Asso- 
ciation and the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec ; did every- 
thing in his power to continuously encourage improved methods of 
farming and a better system of education, and tried to get the sup- 
port of the Assembly in this work ; entertained the French and the 
English and endeavoured to bring them together in social intercourse ; 
erected, largely at his own expen.se, the famous monument in Quebec 
to the joint honour of Wolfe and Montcalm. Dalhousie was, in 
short, one of the best Governors the Province ever had. yet he was, 
also, perhaps the best-hated. 

He saw that until a permanent Civil List was voted and the per- 
manent officials of the Crown taken out of the political arena, there 



AN ERA OF AGITATION 225 

could be no peace, and this settlement he at once demanded from 
the Assembly as a right — in view of the understanding of 1809. 
Details of the dispute in all its varied phases are unnecessary here. 
Sufifice it that the Assembly peremptorily rejected the proposal and 
that during the eight succeeding years of Lord Dalhousie's Vice- 
royalty bitterness and increasing hostility filled the air with clamour 
and complaint. Papineau led the agitation against the Governor in 
the House and in the country with an ever-increasing violence of 
thouo;ht and lang-uasre until the Governor (acting; within his leeal 
prerogative and resenting some exceptional personalities of the 
Speaker) refused to accept, him on re-election to that position. 

Matters then came to a head, mass meetings were held and huge 
petitions sent to England. The Parliament there appointed a Com- 
mittee to investigate the general Canadian situation and, in 1828, it 
reported that the wishes of the French Assembly regarding control 
of the Crown duties which were levied under the Act of 1774, should 
be acceded to in return for a permanent Civil List ; that Judges and 
Bishops in all the Provinces should give up their places in the Legis- 
lative Councils ; that the two Councils in each Province should be 
enlarged by the appointment of independent members — especially 
French Canadians in Lower Canada ; that Receivers General should 
give security and Government accounts be examined by the Assem- 
bly's Auditors. 

Dalhousie at once resigned and was succeeded by Sir James 
Kempt, with a special mission of conciliation in Lower Canada. 
Despite legislation along the line of the Report, he failed, however, 
to conciliate the still clamourous majority ; as did his successor. Lord 
Aylmer. Rebellion was now in the air, and Papineau was dreaming 
dreams of a great French-Canadian Republic, and preaching the 
blessings and benefits of the American system. From the Speaker's 
chair he thundered forth denunciations of monarchy and British rule. 

13 



226 AN ERA OF AGITATION 

On March i, 1834, the Assembly passed the famous Ninety-two 
Resolutions. Tliey spoke, of course, for tlie French-Canadian party, 
from which all its moderate leaders had now withdrawn, and reitera- 
ted every kind of baseless charge of corruption, fraud and tyranny 
against the British Governors and Councillors; demanded immediate 
and entire control of all lands and revenues ; and asked, practically, 
that the Province, with its Government, its English minority, its 
moneys and its commerce be handed over to them. This document, 
with the weighty answer of the Montreal Constitutional Association 
and other English bodies, soon reached London. Lord Gosford, a 
man of conciliatory but weak disposition, was sent out as Governor- 
General and as Chairman of a Commission of Inquiry. The Report 
of the Commission was duly made in 1S37, but, meanwhile, Papineau 
had effectually prevented it from being of any value and had impressed 
himself more and more upon the minds of the people. Rebellion, in 
fact, had become inevitable. 

Meantime, matters had also developed in Upper Canada through 
a long process of conflict in politics and confusion in ideas. Men 
were fighting for equality of opportunities where there was neither 
equality of conditions, of service to the State, or of British sentiment 
— in days when the latter principle was everything to the original 
settler. They were striving for the acceptance of principles which 
they did not themselves understand the application of, which had not 
yet been fully accepted in England, and which were entirely unfitted 
at the time for the crude institutions, or peculiar conditions, of a 
pioneer community. The earliest subject of controversy were the 
Clergy Reserves. In Upper Canada, two and a half million acres of 
wild land had been set aside under the enactment of 1791 for the sup- 
port of a " Protestant Clergy." It was a large body of land, but there 
was plenty more, and up till the thirties this point did not cause 
much discussion. The great question was the unfairness of excluding 



AN ERA OF AGITATION 227 

Methodists and Baptists and Presbyterians from sharing in the grant. 
And, from the standards of to-day there was absolute justice in this 
complaint. Yet at that time the Church of England was, beyond 
controversy, the State Church of the Province and the correspon- 
dence of Simcoe and Dorchester and the Colonial Secretaries, in the 
years following 1791, indicate clearly that it was the intention of the 
Imperial Government to make Upper Canada a mirror of the British 
constitution and in doinsj so to ctIvc it an Established Church. 

There was also much in the contention that this was the Church 
of the bulk of the Loyalists, that it was the pioneer of missionary 
work in the English Provinces, that the grants by Parliament and the 
large sums given by the London Church Missionary Societies were 
long the only support to religious observance and worship in the 
country. And the British Government honestly and naturally believed 
that the best way to encourage Christianity in this new land of vast 
spaces and few people was to give it a stable constitutional basis and 
a fixed financial support. Hence the origin of the Clergy Reserves, 
the consistent support given them by the Tories, and the encour- 
agement afforded to the Church by successive Governors. 

Inevitably, also, other denominations, as the population increased, 
did not like this establishment, and resented the combination of State 
and Church in one strong social, religious and political fabric. After 
a time it was tacitly admitted that the Church of Scotland had a 
right, as an established body in the Old Land, to share in the pro- 
ceeds of the Reserves — proceeds which, by the way, were never 
large, and in the first years of the dispute almost infinitesimal. But 
the discussion dragged its way through the political field for many 
years after this period and the Rebellion itself. The material point 
was that, in some cases, these wild lands, which constituted the 
seventh lot in every surveyed township, lay unimproved amid sur- 
rounding cultivation. Toward the middle of the century this was an 



228 AN ERA OF AGITATION 

important fact and a decided grievance ; in the earlier part of the 
period it certainly couKl nul have been either. 

Meanwhile, in 1817, the first Upper Canadian agitator came on 
the scene. He was a Scotchman, named Robert Gourlay, erratic, head- 
strong, violent and ultimately insane. He came to the new country 
as a failure in the old one, found some grrievances and imagined 
others, stormed the ramparts of the Government with vigour and 
some effect, and soon had a very pretty little controversy in progress. 
Of course, his conduct was deeply resented by the party in power. 
He was without stake in the communitv, or real knowledge of its 
conditions, and they looked upon him as an impudent interloper. 
He was arrested twice and acquitted, then held in jail for seven 
months on a charge of treason, found guilty by a partisan jury and 
expelled from the country. The whole affair was regrettable and his 
treatment unwise and unjust, but it must be remembered in excuse 
that just such men had caused the American Revolution and that 
failure to deal summarily with them in the beginning had made the 
Brithish cause there a lost one. The Loyalists did not want a repetition 
of this issue in Canada — and they were living in the beginning of the 
eighteenth century, not the end ! 

CENTRA!. FIGURES OF A TROUBLOUS PERIOD 

The three central figures of the succeeding period were John 
Beverley Robinson, Dr. |olin Strachan, and William L}on Macken- 
zie. Robinson was a typical Loyalist and Tory, proud of his family 
and his descent, cultured in attainment, manner and appearance, hon- 
ourable in his public dealings, strict in his political code. He had 
fought in 181 2, he had been a vigorous politician for years, and was, 
up to 1829, the practical ruler of the Province. From l-hat date 
until 1862, he was its respected Chief Justice and died a baronet 
of the United Kingdom. Dr. John .Strachan was a militant eccle- 
siastic of an old-time type. .Strong and rugged in his views, 



AN ERA OF AGITATION 231 

intensely earnest in his support of the Church of England and the 
Tory party, a vigorous and continuous fighter in every cause which 
he took up, a strenuous publicist in voice and pen and work, he was 
a great power in the land from the beginning of the century until 
his death in 1867. A member of the Legislative Council and a 
politician of pronounced weight, Bishop of Toronto for twenty-eight 
years, founder of the University of Toronto — as King's College and 
with Church associations — and then of Trinity University, he was, 
in brief, a man of the most marvellous energy and force of char- 
acter. 

Mackenzie was of a very different type. Enthusiastic and rash 
in temperament, fickle in his friendship and fancies, without defined 
standards of right and wrong, violent in his dislikes and prejudices, 
stubborn at times in pursuit of a given aim, he was a strange jumble 
of good and bad — a man as far from being the hero which some of 
his followers and journalistic admirers have made him, as he was 
from being the villain which his opponents believed him. Poor he 
always was ; honest in his hatred of the " Family Compact," as the 
Tories were called from the relationship which many of their leading 
families naturally bore to each other in a limited community, 
he undoubtedly was ; sincere in his vague aspiration after a liberty 
which too often assumed the form of license, he probably was. 
But the bitterness and abusiveness of his journalistic style have per- 
haps never been equalled, the dishonesty of his claim to loyalty was 
clearly shown in later days, the nature of his democracy found ulti- 
mate expression in the fiercest of annexationist proclamations and 
advocacy. Such were the leading men of this troublous period. 

After the disappearance of Gourlay incidents of complaint and 
friction continued to recur. A British half-pay officer, named Matth- 
ews, lost his pension upon report of the Lieutenant-Governor, and 
for encouraging some strolling musicians to play American airs. 



232 AN ERA or AGITATION 

Judge Willis, an English appointee to the Bench, plunged into poli- 
tics as an intense Radical and with bitter invective against the party 
in power, and was very properly removed. An inn-keeper, named 
Forsyth, put up a high fence at Niagara, in order to obstruct the view 
of the I'^alls and force people to pay for passing through his grounds 
to see them. Sir Peregrine Maitland, the Governor, naturally ordered 
its removal and upon refusal sent soldiers, who not only tore down 
the fence but destroyed a house which was built on the man's private 
property. Forsyth became a popular hero, the Assembly denounced 
the action of the Governor, the latter dissolved the House, and was 
ultimately recalled. His successor, in 182S, was Sir John Colborne, 
a Peninsular veteran of high character, great courage and strong 
convictions. 

Gourlay and Matthews, Willis and Forsyth were now the heroes 
of the Radical part)' which had for some time past controlled the 
Assembly, as did the French in Lower Canada. Mackenzie was the 
leader of the violent wing and the invectives and charges of the press 
under his control grew so violent as to almost justify the arrest and 
imprisonment of Editors which followed. The fact is that abuse 
largely took the place of argument, and the attainment of office, or 
the holding of it, became more an object than the development of a 
new and workable system of administration. All was confusion of 
thought and policy amongst the Oppositionists, whilst the Govern- 
ment party were at least consistent and united in their antagonism to 
all change and reform. They were strong because of defined princi- 
ples and objects ; the Reformers— as Radicals and Liberals and Repub- 
licans had now come to be called — were weak through the absence 
of constructive ideas or plans. 

In 1S30, the moderate Reformers such as Marshal Spring Bid- 
well, Robert Baldwin, and the eminent Methodist preacher, writer, 
educationalist, controversialist and politician — Dr. Egerton Ryerson 



AN ER. I OF AGITATION 233 

— began to repudiate the leadership of Mackenzie. The new 
Assembly was, therefore, largely Tory in complexion. Absence of 
tact and the influence of failure now made Mackenzie not only aggres- 
sive but insulting, and the much-abused officials took advantage of 
their majority, and of a technicality, to expel the Radical leader. Four 
times he was re-elected by his constituents of York and four times 
expelled. He finally appealed to England, and the Colonial Secretary 
declared his expulsion illegal. Still, the obstinate and angry majority 
would not move from its position. 

Mackenzie was now the idol of a large part of the people, the 
Papineau of the Upper Province, though without the eloquence of 
his prototype. He was elected the first Mayor of York (Toronto) 
in 1834 and in the same year received a letter from his friend and ally 
in England, the well-known Joseph Hume, in which the latter declared 
that the troubles in Canada could only terminate In independence 
and " freedom from the baleful domination of the Mother-coun- 
try." The sentiment was not publicly disapproved by Mackenzie and 
from this time onward he entered distinctly upon the down-grade 
toward rebellion. The new House, however, had a Reform majority, 
Mackenzie was made Chairman of a " Special Committee of Griev- 
ances " and its Report, presented in 1835, was approved by the Assem- 
bly and forwarded to England as a strong presentation of the 
situation from the standpoint of the Reformer. Anxious, as usual, 
to conciliate, the Imperial Government recalled Colborne as they had 
done Maitland and Dalhousie. It was a repetition of the not infre- 
quent folly of removing the instrument without changing the policy. 

Only drastic measures of change could now have done any 
good and conditions in Lower Canada made a responsible Ministry 
out of the question — even if matters had been sufficiently advanced 
to warrant its establishment in Upper Canada. The new Lieutenant- 
Governor was Sir Francis Bond Head, a Liberal in Home politics, an 



254 AN ERA OF ACrTATION 

excitable and honest man, an administrator with fervent views upon 
the value of British connection, a natural ally of the Loyalist party in 
the Colony. There followed an immediate conflict. The Assembly 
was dissolved, Papineau wrote to Mackenzie a letter which was dis- 
tinctly republican in tone, the Governor appealed to the people to 
support the throne, the connection with England and the institutions 
of their fathers, and the hottest figlit in the early history of the 
Province resulted in a Tory victory and in the personal defeat of 
Mackenzie, Bidwell, Rolph and other leading Reformers. The issue 
was now clear and Mackenzie deliberately prepared for what he fan- 
tastically hoped would be another Revolution — the birth of another 
American Republic. 

CONTROVERSIES IN OTHER I'LACES 

Meanwhile, in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, constitutional 
controversies had arisen, but they were milder in character than those 
of Upper Canada, though not dissimilar in origin. The division 
between classes was not drawn so sharply, the immigration of Ameri- 
cans was not so considerable as in the Upper Province, and there was 
no racial controversy as in Lower Canada. Between iSi6 and 1S28, 
Lord Dalhousie and Sir James Kempt governed in Nova Scotia with 
reasonable moderation and success. They devoted themselves to 
questions of material and educational development and the promotion 
of Church of England interests and influence. This latter point was, 
indeed, a cardinal principle of all the Governors of this period and in 
the administration of nearly all British Colonies. Their advisers 
constituted an oligarchy, but not an offensive one, and it was only in 
1830 that a really severe controversy began between the Assembly 
and the Council upon a qcstion of taxation. In the end, and after a 
general election, the latter body yielded. 

Then came trouble over the management of local affairs in Hali- 
fax, a dispute wiili the Council which involved the freedom of the 



AN ERA OF AGITATION 235 

press, and the rise in 1835 from obscurity into sudden fame of the 
greatest Nova Scotian of early history — Joseph Howe. A journalist 
by profession, he defended himself against the charge of criminal libel 
with an eloquence and force which submerged his opponents, carried 
the jury, won the masses of the people to his side, and made him a 
popular idol. Howe at once entered the Assembly, together with 
Reformers such as William Young, Huntington and O'Connor Doyle, 
and introduced his famous " Twelve Resolutions " condemning the 
constitution and procedure of the Legislative Council and inaugurat- 
ing an active campaign against the existing system of administration. 
They were carried but subsequently withdrawn. Then came the 
accession of Queen Victoria and the Rebellion elsewhere — the latter 
being as strongly denounced by Howe as it could have been by a 
Beverley Robinson or a Jonathan Sewell. 

In New Brunswick the struggle between the two Houses began 
with the century and the details are too trivial and wearisome to 
record in any general review of a situation which was very similar to 
that already described. Sir Howard Douglas came out as Lieutenant- 
Governor in 1S24 and, during the seven years of his administration, 
there was a comparative calm. The lumber interest and ship-building 
industry had overshadowed agriculture and the new Governor devoted 
himself to promoting the latter and improving the very backward 
condition of education. To this latter end he founded the present 
University of New Brunswick. He also had to face the drought of 
1825 and the terrible forest fires which terminated in the destruction 
of the town of Miramichi and a loss of four millions of dollars in 
goods and property and timber. Then came the boundary quarrel 
with Maine. Meantime, Lemuel Allen Wilmot had attained distinc- 
tion as a Reformer and become as conspicuous in his own Province 
as Howe and Mackenzie and Papineau were in theirs. Sir Archibald 



236 AN UK A ()/■ A(;/rA770X 

Campbell, the next Governor, found himself face to face with the old 
and familiar troubles of revenue control and Council combination. 

Sundry reforms were inaugurated, the Executive and Legislative 
Councils were separated and, after vigorous opposition from the 
Governor the Colonial Office, in 1836, ordered the transfer of control 
over all revenues to the Assembly and advised that members of the 
latter body be called to the Executive. Sir Archibald resigned rather 
than accede to this mandate, but his successor — the judicious, wise 
and liberal Sir John Harvey — was only too glad to support the 
change. Thus, New Brunswick became the first Province to estab- 
lish the principle of popular control over public moneys although the 
responsible Executive was again postponed by the Rebellion in the 
Canadas. Cape Breton, in 1820, had become finally a part of Nova 
Scotia and contributed to its public life an active and capable repre- 
sentative in the person of Richard J. Uniacke. In little Prince 
Edward Island there was no popular government at this time and not 
very much of an attempt at it. The estates of the Island were in the 
hands of English owners and its affairs were largely controlled by 
them through the Governors, while the bulk of the population were 
tenants of the distant land-holders. 



CHAPTER XI 
The Troubles of 1837-8 

THE year which commenced the remarkable reign of Queen 
Victoria saw enacted in the Canadas a drama which had much 
influence upon the destinies of the future Dominion. The 
Rebellion which takes up so much space in Canadian history was not 
in itself a great event. Its two chief leaders were men of the brilliant 
irresponsibility of character so typical of similar spirits everywhere 
and the majority of its adherents were sincere and honest in their 
opinions. Its battles, however, were insignificant, its following, in a 
military sense, trivial, and its immediate results unimportant. Yet 
the event stands out in the mind of the Canadian public as the cause 
and origin of free government in this country. How far that 
impression is correct the facts alone will indicate and the story is 
certainly one of interest. 

HOW THE TROUBLE BEGAN 

By the early part of 1837 the events already described had 
reached a climax in both the Canadas while the issue in the Mari- 
time Provinces had been greatly simplified by the absence of any 
actual sedition and by the strength of character and loyalty of 
sentiment of the great Nova Scotian orator and leader, Joseph 
Howe. In Lower Canada the Report of the Royal Commission of 
Inquiry had been made public after presentation to the British 
Parliament and was found to be largely academic in its nature. Lord 
John Russell, as Colonial Secretary, promptly followed it up with a 
measure authorizing the Governor-General to take ;/^ 142,000 from the 
Provincial Treasury and thus pay the arrears of salary and other 

237 



238 THE TROUBLES OF 1837-8 

indebtedness which had accumulated during the five years in which 
the Assembly had refused to vote supplies. At the same time it was 
intimated by the British Government that the proposal of the French 
for an elective Council was inadmissible as it would give the absolute 
control of the popular side of the Government into the hands of one 
race ; and for practically the same reason the establishment of a 
responsible Executive Council was declared to be undesirable. Not 
even the Liberals of England were prepared to place the full power 
of rule in the hands of a racial majority which talked and legislated 
as did the followers of Papineau. 

THE EXCITEMENT INCREASES 

The result, however, was deplorable. The Montreal organ of 
the rising tide of rebellion — The Vmdicator — declared that : " Hence- 
forth there must be no peace in the Province — no quarter for the 
plunderers. Agitate ! Agitate ! Agitate ! Destroy the revenue ! 
Denounce the oppressors ! Everything is lawful when the funda- 
mental liberties are in danger." Meetinsfs of the wildest character 
were held on the banks of the St. Lawrence and the Richelieu. 
Papineau paraded amongst the people whom his oratory stirred into 
a white heat of patriotism and racial pride, and seemed for a time to 
really hold the Province in the hollow of his hand. Lord Gosford 
finally awoke to the apparent seriousness of the issue and in the late 
spring issued a proclamation of warning against the dangers of sedi- 
tion and the folly of the course which was being pursued. Derision 
and shouts of " Long live Papineau, Our Deliverer " was the popular 
response ; the organization of societies called " Sons of Liberty " was 
the reply of the young Frenchmen in Montreal and elswhere ; demands 
involving the practical withdrawal of British authority from Lower 
Canada was the answer of the Assembly. The House was at once 
dissolved and, amidst strong appeals from the Church and the hasty 
organization of the British minority, the rebellion commenced. 




THE HON. LOUIS JOSEPH PAPINEAU 



WILLIAM LYON MACKENZIE 




THOMAS CHANDLER HALIBURTON 
'• Sam Slick " 



SIR JOHN GEORGE BOURINOT 
K.C.M.G., D.C.L.. LL.D. 



THE TROUBLES OF 1837-8 241 

Owing very largely to the influence of the Roman Catholic 
Bishops and clergy the ensuing insurrection was not a general one. 
Bishop Lartigue, of Montreal, issued a memorable Mandenient on 
October 24th to the people of his Diocese and was supported strongly 
in its presentation of views by Bishop Signay of Quebec. This docu- 
ment denounced the rebel leaders as "evil-minded men"; declared 
that " both human and divine laws rise up in condemnation of those 
who by schemes of sedition and revolt endeavour to shake allegiance 
to Princes ; " pointed out the horrors of civil war and the dangers 
of seed sown in the days of the French Revolution ; condemned 
unbridled liberty and eulogized the rights of authority. There is no 
doubt of the wide influence exerted by these opinions and by the 
command to avoid open participation in the rising. Though the 
clergy had taken no pronounced part in keeping the people away 
from the sound of Papineau's burning eloquence and the temptations 
of his policy — perhaps it would have been impossible to do so — they 
now did everything in their power to hold them back from the extremity 
of insurrection and even suggested to the Executive Council the dis- 
cussion of a compromise. But it was now too late to avert bloodshed 
and a year or more of factious disorder. 

Meanwhile, in Upper Canada, events had been proceeding with 
similar rapidity though not with the same degree of seriousness. 
There, the minority in favour of actual violence was very small, 
though very noisy. Mackenzie was not as big a man in either brains 
or body as was Papineau and the class he had to draw upon for sedi- 
tion was infinitely smaller than in Lower Canada. His newspaper, 
however, was clever in its insistent bitterness and continuous denun- 
ciation ; while the real abuses which existed gave excuse for strong 
opposition to the powers of the day though in Upper, as in Lower 
Canada, they did not give sufficient ground for rebellion. 



242 THE TROUBLES OF 1837-8 

On July 31, 1837, Mackenzie published in his paper, The Coti- 
stiiiciion, a document which he called the Reformer's Declaration of 
Rights and it affords a pretty clear statement of his position. It was, 
in the first place, based upon the style of the American Declaration 
of Independence and had much the same end in view although 
it was much more violent and infinitely less dignified than the appa- 
rent source of its inspiration. It teemed with references such as that 
to the " baneful domination " of Great Britain and the " mockery of 
human government" under which "we have been insulted, injured 
and brought to the brink of ruin." Many moderate Liberals laughed 
at it. Ryerson, Baldwin, Bidwell and other Liberal leaders sharply 
denounced it. Sir Francis Bond Head looked upon it as the mere 
froth and foam of an agitation whicli must come to a head — and the 
sooner the better. Mackenzie went on with his wild work of drilling 
small bodies of men and organizing " vigilance committees " to carry 
afar the doctrines of his " Declaration " with its list of grievances, its 
repudiation of British allegiance, Its pronouncement in favour of the 
rebels of Lower Canada and its fervent sympathy with American 
institutions. 

The Lieutenant-Governor responded to these menaces with a quiet 
contempt antl a perfect assurance in the loyalty of the masses of 
the people for which he has been frequently condemned. So strongly 
did he feel the futility and farcical nature of the whole movement 
that he sent all the regular troops in the Province down to Lower 
Canada, where they appeared to be greatly needed, and expressed 
his intention to depend upon the loyal volunteers and militia of the 
Province — a dependence which was certainly not misplaced and a 
policy which seems to have been justified by the result. He believed 
that some sort of a rising was inevitable and that until it took place, 
and the steam of e.xisting discontent was blown off in the fiasco which 
must follow, there would be neither peace nor order in the land. The 



THE TROUBLES OE 1S37-8 243 

sooner it took place the better, therefore, and the less British troops 
had to do with its suppression the better also for future loyalty 
amongst the people as a whole. In this he was rig-ht, and in the 
belief that the Province would never prosper until certain agitators 
were removed from the sphere of popular influence, he was also right. 
Such was the situation in the two Canadas when the flash of folly, 
which has been termed the rebellion of 1837, took place. 

BEGINNING OF THE REBELLION 

The rebellion began in Lower Canada in October, 1837 and the 
centre of disaffection was the country along the banks of the 
Richelieu. At St. Charles, the half-armed, partially drilled, and 
utterly deceived habitants gathered in force. At St. Denis, nearby, 
was a similar body under Dr. Wolfred Nelson, a Montreal physician 
who had early enrolled himself under the inflammatory banner of 
Papineau. Sir John Colborne, who had come back to Canada as 
Commander-in-Chief, sent expeditions to scatter the rebels at these 
points. St. Denis was attacked by a force under Colonel Gore which, 
amid circumstances of considerable difficulty, was temporarily 
repulsed. St. Charles was easily occupied by Colonel Weatherell, 
and the rebels scattered like chaff. Meanwhile, a small body of loyal 
cavalry had been attacked between these places and Lieutenant 
Weir captured by a French contingent. In trying to escape he was 
shot and then hacked to pieces under conditions of extreme bru- 
tality. His murderers were afterwards tried but acquitted by a French 
jury. News of the success at St. Charles soon reached St. Denis, and 
the French there melted away without giving fresh trouble to the 
British troops. 

At St. Eustache, north of Montreal, a few rebels made a brave 
and determined stand under Dr. Chenier ; and not until the church 
in which they were fighting had fallen in blazing ruins about their 
heads did the deluded peasants try to escape. It was then too late. 



244 THE TROUBLES OF 1837-8 

however, and nearly all died — including their leader to whom, many 
years afterward, the French people of Montreal raised a statue. 
This was the end of the actual insurrection, although Xelson and 
Cote and a few other leaders crossed the American frontier, issued 
proclamations announcing a new republic and, in 1838, gathered to- 
gether large bands of raiders for the purpose of invasion. On the 
Beauharnois Canal they destroyed a steamer and, taking advantage 
of Lord Durham's leniency during his few months' administration, 
nearly provoked another rebellion. At Laprairie, Nelson succeeded 
in getting 2,000 men together, but Colborneat once sent a large force 
against him and, after an encounter at Odelltown. he fled back to the 
States. Colborne was now Governor-General, and was determined 
that there should be no more doubt as to the substantial difference 
between loyalty and treason. 

Courts-Martial were established — the Habeas Corpus Act being 
meantime suspended — the principal rebels were tried, forty-nine of 
them condemned to transportation and eighty to death. Only eleven 
actually suffered the extreme penalty and they were selected from men 
who had deliberately attempted to raise rebellion a second time after 
having been once pardoned, or who had committed personal crimes in 
addition to acts of treason. Papineau, Nelson, O'Callaghan and 
Brown, who had lied to the States at an early stage of the rising, 
were convicted of high treason. Papineau went to live in France 
and in 1844 was allowed to return to Canada without attracting atten- 
tion — only to find his influence gone and his reputation a mere shadow 
of the greatness which had fled forever in the flame of his own folly. 

The object of the whole agitation and action in Lower Canada 
had become clear as the rebellion approached, and Lord Gosford, 
writing to the Colonial Secretary on September 2, 1S37, had declared 
that: "It is evident the Papineau faction will not be satisfied until 
the English Government have put it in a position to carry its projects 



THE TROUBLES OF 1837-8 245 

into execution, viz.: the separation of this country from England and 
the proclamation of a republic." The farce of constitution-mongering 
and claims for a system which the leaders did not understand and 
only wanted for employment against British influence and authority 
was now over ; and the bubble created by brilliant rhetoric play- 
ing upon French passions and prejudices was pricked by the stand 
of the Church and the sound of British cannon. The hierarchy 
indeed, took strong ground in their condemnation. "What misery, 
what desolation," exclaimed the Bishop of Montreal, " is spread 
broadcast through many of our fields and homes since the scourge of 
civil war has ravaged a happy country where abundance and joy 
reigned, with order and safety, before brigands and rebels by force of 
sophistries and lies had led astray a part of the population." 

The responsibility for what occurred rests with the men thus 
characterized by their own Church; with men such as Papineau, Cote, 
Nelson, O'Callaghan and Chenier. As Dr. N. E. Dionne, the cul- 
tured Provincial Librarian at Quebec has well said : " All these are 
the true culprits and, I dare say, the only culprits."* But the ignor- 
ant suffered for the machinations and the crazy ambitions of the cul- 
tured. Blame must also be laid upon men who afterwards became 
prominent and loyal citizens, but who in their youthful days suc- 
cumbed to the brilliancy and fascination of Papineau and fell victims 
to his folly — men such as Sir George Etienne Cartier, the Hon. A. N. 
Morin, the Hon. D. B. Yiger, Sir L. H. Lafontaine, and others who 
followed their leader to the verge of rebellion and then shrank back 
from the full fruition of his policy. 

In Upper Canada, during this period, the insurrection had 
been equally futile and still more feeble. When the rising com- 
menced in Lower Canada matters were in readiness, as far as they 
could ever be under the hopeless circumstances of the case, in the 

* Article ia Canada : An Encyclopcsdiu of the Country, vol. 3. 

14 



246 THI-. TROUBLES OF 1837-S 

Upper Province. A series of two hundred meetings had been 
addressed by Mackenzie in fiery and uncontrollable language; drilling 
and rifle shooting had been freely practised ; and, in November, 
1,500 persons had volunteered for active service who were stated to 
be efificiently trained. Arrangements were then made to march a 
force upon Toronto, to seize the Lieutenant-Governor and 4,000 
muskets which were kept in the City Hall under the protection of a 
small guard of volunteers, and to proclaim a republic with Dr. John 
Rolph — a clever, adroit politician who had so far kept upon both 
sides of the fence — as Provisional President. 

THE KISINc; IX Uri'ER CAN.\nA 

It was thought that after this had been consummated the rest of 
the Province would accept the new constitution without further 
trouble. A more vain and silly project, upon the surface, was never 
hatched in a treasonable brain. The excuse for it, however, is that 
help was expected and promised, and afterwards given when too late, 
from the States. Meanwhile, on December 4th, after gathering at a 
place called Montgomery's Tavern in such force as they could muster, 
the rebels marched upon the city only to take alarm at the appear- 
ance of a picket of volunteer troops and to hastily retreat. During 
the next few days, however, their numbers increased to some 1,000 
men, armed with guns, scythes, pitchforks, axes and anything they 
could lay their hands upon. Colonel Moodie, a Peninsular veteran, 
and a much respected citizen, attempted to ride through their lines 
with the soldier's characteristic contempt for a mob in arms, and was 
shot dead. But Toronto was now ready tor them ; every man of 
influence and nearly every citizen was shouldering his musket, from 
the Chief Justice down ; and loyal militia, including the gallant 
" Men of Gore " as the Hamilton volunteers were called, were pour- 
ing in from all directions. On December 7th, Colonel (afterwards 
Sir A. N.) McNab, marched out to attack the rebel force. It was 



TflF. Tk'OUBI.F.S OF 1S37-8 247 

under the command of Samuel Lount, a lilacksmith by occupation, 
and had been drilled for some time by Colonel Van E^jmond, an old- 
time officer in the French army under Napoleon. The Lieutenant- 
Governor offered the insurcrents a last chance to surrender and to crive 
up the mad attempt at rebellion. It was refused by Mackenzie and the 
500 militia under McNab, dressed in homespun but none the less 
inspired with traditions of Britain's thin red line, advanced to the 
attack. After a sincjle hot exchange of fire and a slio-ht skirmish the 
fiofht was over and the rebels scattered. 

Like Papineau, Mackenzie fled at the first shot and, after various 
adventures, reached the American frontier. At Navy Island, above 
Niagara Falls, he established his mockery of a government, and soon 
sympathizers from both sides of the line were flocking to join him. 
At Toronto, militia and volunteers continued to arrive in such num- 
bers as to actually embarass the Governor and to most fully prove 
the wisdom of his belief that the Province would stand by him when 
the inevitable rising took place. Some of them were sent under 
McNab to watch the rebels at Navy Island and, incidentally, seized a 
steamer called the Caroline which was supplying Mackenzie with 
munitions of war, from under the guns of an American fort and sent 
her blazing over the Falls of Niagara. Many months later, after the 
sympathies of the border cities of the United States had exhausted 
the supply of men and arms and material available for the insurrection, 
the President issued a proclamation warning the people against attack- 
ing a friendly State. Mackenzie, meantime, had left Navy Island, 
and was arrested and sentenced to eighteen months' imprisonment by 
an Albany (N. Y.) jury. 

But conspiracies in American cities went on, so-called Hunter's 
Lodefes were oro-anized and drilled in largre bodies of men, and 
invaded the Canadian Provinces at different times and places during 
the ensuing two years. It was a desultory and guerilla warfare which 



24S THE TROUBLES OE 1837-8 

lacked organization and a leader with brains, but none the less did it 
cause the Governments of Upper and Lower Canada much worry and 
expense and the border settlements much of suffering and natural 
fear. From Ogdensburg, Buffalo and Detroit expeditions were sent, 
one numbering 1,500 filibusters and rebels, but all were routed, or 
driven back by the mere report of advancing militia. At Prescott, 
across the St. Lawrence and near Kingston, a band of raiders under 
the Polish refugee, \^on Schultz, were attacked in one of the stone 
mills of the neighbourhood, in which they had taken refuge and, after 
a vigorous resistance, were captured by a British and Canadian force. 
The occasion of the succeeding trial was notable for the defence of 
Von Schultz by a young lawyer named John A. Macdonald and for 
it being his first case. The leader, however, and eleven of his follow- 
ers were convicted and hunsf. 

The most notable of these incidents was the last. In December, 
1839, there marched through the crowded and cheering streets of 
Detroit a band of 450 raiders on their way to capture the Canadian 
town of Windsor on the opposite side of the river. They did so, 
burning a vessel and some houses, capturing a small guard of militia 
and murdering a peaceful citizen who refused to join their ranks. 
Then they marched to Sandwich and met their fate in the person of 
Colonel John Prince — a Loyalist of the Loyalists, a stern soldier of 
the old school, a man with an utter contempt for rebels, and one who 
cared nothing for the fickle fancies of public opinion when a matter 
of duty appeared before him. With 200 men he met and routed the 
invaders and, in consequence of finding the body of a respected sur- 
geon named Hume who had been wantonly killed by the rebels, he 
ordered four prisoners to the front and had them shot. It was stern 
justice and afterwards met with condemnation from the many people 
who seem to think that invasions and wars and rebellions can be put 
down with rose-water. Colonel Prince cared nothing for this kind of 




JAMES BRUCE 

8th earl of ELGIN AND KINCARDINE 

Governor-General of British America, 1847-54 



THE TROUBLES OF iSjj-8 ' 251 

clamour, nor did Sir George Arthur, the new Lieutenant-Governor in 
place of Sir Francis Bond Head. When the final trials were over the 
latter deliberately allowed the law to take its course and two of the 
rebel leaders — Lount and Matthews — who had failed to escape to the 
States, were executed as a result of their conviction and sentence. 

RESULTS OF THE RISING 

This was the end of the trouble in the Upper Province. It had 
never been a serious rising as regards numbers, or influence, or possi- 
ble result. It had brought good out of evil by creating a re-action 
against the irresponsible utterances of demagogues which were as 
injurious to the country, even from the standpoint of present beliefs, 
as was the irresponsible government of men who were at least honour- 
able and honest. It had shown the rock-bottom of popular loyalty 
beneath all the froth and foam of foolish public speeches. It had 
separated the moderate and loyal Reformers, or Liberals, who were will- 
ing to workandwait for changes which were bound to come in time, from 
the fantastic advocates of independence and republicanism. It had 
made clear the fact that a rebellion upon American soil is not always 
successful, and it had once more shown how right the Loyalists were 
in fearing American influence upon Canadian politics and govern- 
ment. It had proved that nothing was to be gained by violence and 
that the best way to obtain honest reform was not by abusing an 
honest opponent but by presenting to the people a plain and loyal 
policy in opposition to the clearly understood Toryism of the domi- 
nant party. 

The Rebellion did not bring about responsible government. 
The Imperial authorities had already admitted the principle in New 
Brunswick and it was only the personal opposition of Sir Archibald 
Campbell and the coming menace of insurrection elsewhere that 
delayed its adoption. In conjunction with the preceding violence and 
disloyalty of Papineau and Mackenzie and their associates, the 



252 THE TROUBLES OF 1837-8 

Rebellion retarded rather than advanced the consummation of popular 
government. The whole correspondence of this period between the 
Governors and the Colonial Office reveal a sensitive desire to con- 
ciliate Canadian Frenclimen and Canadian Radicals. The recall of 
Governor after Governor indicates still further the strentrth of this 
feeling, and there is little doubt that had the agitation for responsible 
government been conducted with moderation and based upon a genuine 
conception of what was wanted the desired result would have come, not 
only without rebellion and with pleasure on the part of the Home Gov- 
ernment, but without the years of friction which were still to follow. 

So far as Great Britain was concerned concession after conces- 
sion had been made. The constitution, under the terms of the Act 
of I 79 1, allowed the union of Church and State, but the principle was 
not pressed except by the personal influence of the Governors and 
did not ultimately prevail. The exclusive privileges claimed by the 
Church of England were not maintained. The connection of the 
Judges with the Legislative Councils was severed. Obnoxious laws 
were repealed and minor causes of complaint removed. The Indian 
administration under Imperial auspices was admirable and large 
sums were paid from the British Exclicqucr for Indian maintenance. 
The expense of keeping large military forces in the country as a result 
of the unpleasant feeling in the States was borne as cheerfully as had 
been the enormous cost of the War of 1S12. Popular rights of pub- 
lic meeting had been fully granted despite the opposition of the gov- 
erning class. A tax had been placed on wild lands so as to prevent 
their being held by speculators. Commission after Commission had 
come out to try and solve a situation which the men on the spot did 
not fully understand and whicii the Colonial Office can hardly be 
blamed for not finding as clear as daylight. 

In the Maritime Provinces the only effect of the Rebellion had 
been to produce an echo of the loyalty shown in I'pper Canada by 



THE TROUBLES OE 1837-S 253 

the masses and in Lower Canada by the Church and the classes. 
Major-General Sir John Harvey, in New Brunswick, had offered his 
Legislature and Sir John Colborne to lead the militia of the Province 
against the rebels, if help should be needed, and declared to the latter 
that he could depend upon New Brunswick to a man. The Legisla- 
ture afterwards expressed its thanks to Sir Francis Bond Head and 
the gallant volunteers of Upper Canada for what they had done in 
suppressing the insurrection. The Nova Scotia authorities also 
offered men and money. 

Now, however, that the serious troubles were over others seemed 
inevitable. The constitution in Lower Canada had been suspended, 
the two Provinces were under the government of strong military men 
such as Colborne and Arthur, the Upper Canadian Tories were tri- 
umphant at the polls and apparently entrenched in power for a long time 
to come, the French-Canadians were silent and somewhat sullen, the 
English Radicals and American Republicans were scattered and 
broken in influence. This situation clearly could not last long and 
it required a man of exceptional ability to re-organize affairs and to 
straighten out the complicated issues of the time. That man came 
in the person of Lord Durham. 



CHAPTER XII 

Lord Durham and the I'nioii of the Canadas 

ONE of the most picturesque and, perhaps, the most command- 
ing of figures in Canadian history is that of John George 
Lambton, Earl of Durham. Of high pohtical reputation at 
home and with a future in which the Liberal Premiership was sup- 
posed to be within his reach ; of attractive and striking personality' 
and with an Earldom won by services to the state ; he flashed like a 
meteor over the disturbed scene of Canadian affairs in 1S3S. With- 
in a period of six months he illumined the prolonged record of Can- 
adian controversy and agitation with a brilliantly comprehensive 
Report in which he laid down the principles of Colonial constitutional 
government for the first and for all time ; provided the policy upon 
which the administration of a great Empire is to-day based ; earned a 
reputation which is world-wide in extent. Then he returned home in 
a sudden burst of passion to die a disappointed death within a few 
months and without realizing the great place he had made for himself 
in the annals of his country. 

THE KHiHT MAN I.\ TlIK RIGHT I'L.VCE 

Delicate in health, sensitive and high-strung in temperament, 
imperious in conduct and manner, he was eminently fitted to shine in 
some great Eastern pro-consulate where power would have been in 
his own hands and the petty pin-pricks of political enemies and critics 
would not have continually wounded his personal feelings. He was 
not suited to the conflicts of public life, and despite his position and 
brilliant abilities could never have really reached the position which 
his friends had hoped for him. Yet. for Canada, strange as it may 

254 



LORD DURHAM AND THE UNION OF THE CAN ADAS 255 

seem, he was, at the moment of his coming, the right man in the right 
place. 

The popular respect for the Queen's Representative which was 
usually shown, if not always felt, had been somewhat Injured by the 
prolonged and savage attacks of Papineau upon Dalhousie and Gos 
ford, and of Mackenzie upon Sir Francis Bond Head, and Lord Dur- 
ham provided a splendid and stately setting for the position. Too 
many of the Governors-General had received scant support in their 
policy from the Colonial Office, and their limited powers, or quickly 
changed instructions, had prevented continuity of administration and 
system. Lord Durham came, it was announced, with full authority to 
settle the country, to assuage animosities and to prevent further trouble 
— by the strong hand if necessary. 

HIS POLICY AND SHORT ADMINISTRATION 

The Tories and Loyalists were pleased with his dignity of de- 
meanour, his great reticence, his stately ceremonial wherever he went, 
his evident earnestness and unremitting industry. The Liberals and 
discontented section were charmed with his reputation for Liberalism, 
his refusal to come under the control of the dominant party, and 
his keen investigation of grievances. The French were more easily 
and naturally impressed by the splendour of his hospitality and vice- 
regal state than perhaps any other part of the population. 

Hence it was that when Lord Durham landed at Quebec on May 
29th, 1838, as the special High Commissioner of his Sovereign and 
as Governor-General of all British America, he entered upon what 
seemed to promise a pre-eminently successful administration amid 
conditions of admitted difficulty. He re-organized temporarily the 
government of Lower Canada ; but without the constitution which 
had been suspended by Sir John Colborne. He had with him an 
excellent staff, chief of whom was Mr. Charles Buller, and these men 
joined in conducting the inquiries which were initiated in every 



256 LORD DURHAM AXD THE UNION OF THE CAN ADAS 

direction. With restless energy he, himself, travelled over the country, 
investigated every possible grievance, wrote innumerable despatches 
and charmed everyone with a boundless hospitality. A meeting of 
the Lieutenant-Governors of the various Provinces was called and 
much was learned from the discussions and explanations which fol- 
lowed ; while Lord Durham, with an eye upon the far-distant future, 
which then seemed as impossible as a federation of South Africa 
seems difficult to-day, suggested the federated union of all the 
Provinces as a policy which would ensure peace and progress. 

His great trouble, however, was with the prisoners who crowded 
the jails of the country and with the rebel leaders who Had escaped 
and might return at any moment to renew disturbance and promote 
discontent. Complete amnesty he deemed unwise and, as it eventu- 
ally turned out, his alleged harshness was not sufficient to prove a 
necessary warning. The less important prisoners were freed upon 
promise of good behaviour, but with the ringleaders who had escaped 
to the States he could do nothing except prohibit their return under 
penalties. From the general amnesty he also excluded eight prison- 
ers of whom the chief was Dr. Wolfred Nelson. There beinsr no 
trial b)' jury in the Province of Lower Canada, as a result of the sus- 
pension of its constitution, no possibility of such a thing under exist- 
ing popular opinion, and no law covering the state of the case. Lord 
Durham took the matter into his own hands as Judge and jury and, 
with a legitimate belief that his full and yet vague authority entitled 
him to discretionary action, banished these eight rebels to Bermuda 
on pain of e.xecution for high treason should they return. 

Then came the complication which seems to have been inevita- 
ble whenever a strong ruler in Colonial history has struck out a 
strong policy for himself and, therefore, come into conflict with a 
weak or ignorant Colonial Minister at home. Lord Dorchester and 
Lord Dalhousie in Canada had already suffered in this way and Sir 



LORD DURHABl AND THE UX/OJV OF THE CANADAS 257 

George Grey and Sir Bartle Frere are memorable instances in Souin 
Africa. Such weakness is not likely to exist or to be influential again, 
under present conditions, but it served to ruin the happiness and the 
life-work of this sincere and sensitive statesman. His action was 
irregular but could easily have been made regular. The Governor of 
Bermuda claimed that he had no authority to hold the prisoners. 
The antagonists of Lord Durham in the British Parliament, and chief 
amongst them the brilliant, bitter, and erratic personality of Lord 
Brougham, inveighed strongly against the policy as illegal and unjus- 
tifiable ; the Imperial Government unfairly and unwisely weakened 
under an attack which should have been honestly and vigorously met, 
and disallowed the decree ; Lord Durham threw up his office with 
indignation, issued a proclamation declaring that he had been unsup- 
ported in his necessary punishment of notorious rebels, and returned 
home without waiting for a recall or for the receipt of his resignation 
in London. It was not statesmanship to give way to such a sudden 
sentiment of rage, however justified by the supineness of those who 
should have stood by him. But the action was little more than a spot 
on the sun of his real success. He had practically done his great 
work. His Report on the condition of British America was well in 
hand and, doubtless, was largely added to during the long, slow voy- 
age home and a reputation thus secured in the pages of history greater 
than that won by all brilliant vagaries of a Brougham or the gay and 
almost forgotten bonhoimnie of a Melbourne. 

Still, he had to encounter the coldness of official sentiment as 
shown in the refusal to accord him the usual salute on the arrival of his 
ship and to chafe under the ignorant criticism of clever men in the 
Houses of Parliament. He had to face a situation which his proud spirit 
could not brook, which the kindly reception of the populace could not 
counteract, which the knowledge of being in the right could not assuage ; 
and within a few months the delicate, warm-hearted, impulsive and 



258 LORD DURHAM AND THE UNION OF THE CAN ADAS 

brilliantly capable nobleman had passed away leaving a document 
which is enshrined in the annals of liberty and constitutional rule. It 
was communicated to the British Parliament on February ii, 1839 
and composes, with its numerous appendices and subsidiary reports, 
a most elaborate study of the early political history of British America 
— a voluminous and most valuable summary of conditions and senti- 
ments and tendencies in the Provinces. As a result of si.\ months' 
labour and experience it is marvellous in scope and character ; as a cor- 
rect and impartial statement and prophetic picture of the future, 
it is still more so. 

THE DURHAM REPORT 

Of course, all Lord Durham's conclusions and assertions were 
not accurate ; and mistakes are to be found and sins of omission 
and commission easily proven. Sir Francis Bond Head, Bishop 
Strachan and Sir John Beverley Robinson, from the standpoint of 
the Loyalist and Tory, found much to criticise and certainly did 
their duty up to the hilt. The French Canadians found reason 
for copious denunciation and to this day the name of Durham is 
hardly one to conjure with in Quebec. It was quite impossible to 
please both Tory and Liberal in Canada and his advocacy of respon- 
sible government might be justly expected to antagonize the former. 
It was also impossible to please the French at this juncture and espe- 
cially when recommending the union of the Canadas. Yet, the 
strength of his statements regarding the population of Lower Can- 
ada was the one great error in the Report. It did not invalidate the . 
value of his recommendations, or control greatly his conclusions, but 
it had the effect of weakening the influence of his whole policy in 
the French Canada of the future. 

He seems to have felt intensely the unworthiness of the attitude 
assumed by the French Assembly. From its point of view he de- 
clared the Enoflish were a foreigfn and a hostile race : settlement and 




WILLIAM KINGSFORD, LL.D. 



THE REV. DR. HENRY WILKES 








— 1 


n 


p 


*i^L^K '^ 


J 


^B^.i^^l 


^^^^^^■^B^Ha^^^^^pI 



THE HON JOHN YOUNG 



COLONEL GEORGE McDONELL, C.B. 



LORD DURHAM AND THE UNION OF THE CANADAS 261 

immigration were to be checked as tending to the possible aggran- 
dizement of these aliens ; taxes were not to be imposed for purposes 
of development, or for such objects as the improvement of Montreal 
harbour, because the expenditure might benefit English interests; 
applications for banks and railways and canals were to be put aside 
for similar reasons ; the Feudal tenure must be supported and per- 
sisted in because it was a French institution ; a tax on immisfrants 
should be advocated and largely supported ; while any measure 
retarding English purposes or checking English investment would 
be certain of approval. All this was true enough, but it hardly 
justified the following conclusion : " Nor do I exaggerate the inevi- 
table constancy any more than the intensity of this animosity. Never 
again will the present generation of French Canadians yield a loyal 
submission to a British Government ; never again will the Eng-lish 
population tolerate the authority of a House of Assembly in which the 
French shall possess, or even approximate to, a majority." 

However, good came out of error, and the very strength of Dur- 
ham's belief in the disloyal sentiment of the French race in Lower 
Canada led him to seek a solution of the problem in the merging of 
the French in that Province with the English in the other Provinces. 
Failing the immediate fruition of this far-seeing policy of a federal 
union, he pressed the proposal to unite Upper and Lower Canada. 
He believed that this policy would cause parties which were divided on 
racial or sectarian lines to be re-constituted upon questions of general 
development and local interest. The one race would balance the 
other, one church influence would be offset by another, and new com- 
binations and conditions would change, for the better, the whole sur- 
face of society. It might not be so at once and, during the existing 
generation he did not anticipate much difference or change in the 
sentiment of Lower Canada, but in the end the result was reason- 
ably certain. 



262 LORD DURHAM AND THE UNION OF THE CAN ADAS 

Mis analysis of the constitutional issue was masterly. He caught 
up all the vague threads of thought upon the subject as they floated 
through the controversies of years ; sifted the discussion of extraneous 
matters which had clouded the real issue ; cleared the air of many 
misunderstandings upon the one side and of dense prejudices on the 
' other. He enabled the Liberals to eventually evolve in some clear- 
ness the principles they were so blindly groping after and the Tories 
to understand the policy free from many of their natural suspicions 
though not from their equally natural aversions. He enabled the 
Colonial Office to perceive that there might be some workable and 
loyal method of enlarging the scope and character of Colonial insti- 
tutions without encouraging republicanism and secession. 

The presentation of the policy was its own recommendation. It 
involved a re-constructed system in which, by steady stages of devel- 
opment, the Colonies were to have complete self-government — includ- 
ino- a Legislature with the same powers in Provincial money matters 
as the British Parliament had in Home affairs and a Ministry respon- 
sible to the Legislature for the conduct of public matters in the same 
way as the Imperial Government was at home. It does not appear 
that Lord Durham expected all this to be achieved in a day, or a ses- 
sion, in any of the Provinces ; to say nothing of it being done in the 
stormy season which must follow the union of the Canadas. But 
upon the point of its necessity he was firmly convinced : " I know 
not how it is possible to secure harmony in any other way than by 
administering the Government on those principles which have been 
found perfectly efficacious in Great Britain. I would not impair a 
sinole prerogative of the Crown ; on the contrary I believe that the 
interests of the people of these Provinces require the protection of 
prerogatives which have not hitherto been exercised. But the Crown 
must, on the other hand, submit to the necessary consequences of 
representative institutions ; and if it has to carry on the government 



LORD DURHAM AND THE UNION OF THE CANADAS 263 

in unison with a representative body, it must consent to carry it on 
by means of those in whom that representative body has confi- 
dence." * 

The ceaseless struggle between Executive and Legislative func- 
tions and bodies must be changed into harmonious and combined 
action. ' " While the present state of things is allowed to last the 
actual inhabitants of these Provinces have no security for person or 
property, no enjoyment of what they possess, no stimulus to indus- 
try." The Report gave, indeed, a most gloomy picture of existing 
conditions and especially so in its comparison of the progress on the 
American side of the line with the stagnation on the Canadian border. 
To summarize the Report, as a whole, it may be said that he 
deprecated the continuous and injurious political agitation, denounced 
the character and motives of the French Canadian leaders and many 
of their people, proposed union of the Canadas as a partial cure to 
the evils in the Lower Province, urged the creation of responsible 
Ministries in all the Provinces as a panacea for constitutional trou- 
bles, proposed the building of the present Liter-Colonial Railway from 
Halifax to Quebec as a means of drawings the Provinces too-ether, and 
advocated the establishment of municipal institutions as a means of 
guarding local interests and advancing political experience and knowl- 
edge. 

RESULTS OF THE REPORT 

Though the writer of the document was put to one side by the 
dictate of destiny his opinions were at once embodied, to a consider- 
derable extent, in an Act of the British Parliament which Lord John 
Russell introduced in June 1839. Sir John Colborne, who had been 
acting as Governor-General since the departure of Lord Durham, 
was now replaced by Mr. Charles E. Poulett Thomson, M. P., and 
returned home to become eventually Lord Seaton and a Field 

* The Durham Report, page 106. 



264 Loan DURHAM .\.\'l) THE VSIOS' or THE CAS'ADAS 

Marshal in the army. Mr. Thomson, who was soon to be known as 
Lord Sydenham of Sydenham and Toronto, was a Liberal in politics and 
a shrewd, careful and diplomatic administrator. He rapidly made him- 
self familiar with the complicated situation and got into touch with 
interests and personages hitherto far removed from the purview of the 
Governor-General's attention, although of great importance in the set- 
tlement of affairs. He arrived at Montreal in November and found 
the situation somewhat simplified by the fact that the proposals con- 
tained in Lord J. Russell's Bill did not have to run the gauntlet of 
French approval — excepting that of a few Seigneurs included in the 
Council which had governed the Province under Durham and Col- 
borne during the previous two years. This body readily accepted the 
principle of union with LIpper Canada which it declared of "indis- 
pensable and urgent necessity." 

In December, he acliieved the exceedingly difficult step of pass- 
ing a favourable motion through the Legislature of Upper Canada 
which, at this time, was fully under the control of the Tory Loyalists 
in both its branches. They were still smarting from the evils of the 
rebellion period, still triumphant over the vindication of their fears 
and dislike of Mackenzie and his associates, still more certain of the 
disloyalty of the French Canadians than they had been before, confi- 
dent as ever in the necessity for a strong British administration of the 
Provinces without too much regard to Radical, or Liberal or Republi- 
can susceptibilities. Yet they were now asked by the Governor- 
General, on behalf of the Crown and the Home Government, to 
forego the advantages of their present triumph ; to accept a union 
which meant an influx of French votes into the joint Assembly suffi- 
cient to paralyze their power as a party ; to support by this action a 
system of responsible government which, though not included in the 
lesislation, was bound to follow it, and which thev were conscienti- 
ously bound to oppose; to mike a way ready, in short, for the victory 



LORD DURHAM AND THE UNION OF THE CAN AD AS 265 

of men who were nothing- less than rebels in the eyes of such politi- 
cal leaders of the time as Draper and McNab and Strachan and 
Sherwood. 

That they finally consented to the union and supported an Ad- 
dress to the Crown in its favour is a tribute, in the first place, to the 
genuine unselfishness and sincerity of much of the loyalty of that 
period and, in the second place, to the ability and tact of the Gov- 
ernor-General. The former element in the settlement has not been 
remembered and appreciated as it deserves, the latter gives Lord 
Sydenham a high place in Canadian history. Finally, Lord J. Rus- 
sell, re-introduced his measure in the British Session of 1840, and it 
came into operation in the now United Province of Canada, on Febru- 
ary ]o, 1S41. The Act provided for a Legislative Council of not less 
than 20 members, and for a Legislative Assembly in which the old 
Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada would each be represented by 
42 members — this number being unchangeable except by a two-thirds 
majority in both Houses. The qualification for the Assembly was a 
freehold valued at ;/^5oo over and above all liabilities. 

The English language only was to be used and the limit of time 
for the duration of the popular body was four years. Of course, it 
could be dissolved by the Governor-General at any time. Provision 
was made for a consolidated revenue fund on which the first charges 
were to be the expense of collection, management and receipt of 
revenues, the interest of the public debt, the civil list and payment of 
the clergy.* The last-mentioned item shows how close were the 
relations of Church and State, even yet, and the arrangement regard- 
ing the Civil List finally disposed of that much-vexed question. 
After these payments were made out of the fund the balance was at 
the disposal of the Legislature. All votes, resolutions and bills 

* Sir J. G. Bourinot, Manual of the CoHititulional Histoiy of Canada^ i8S8. 

IS 



266 LORD DURHAM AXD THE UNION Of' THE CAN ADAS 

connected with the expenditure of public moneys had to be first 
recommended by the Governor-General. 

As to the administration of this new system, Lord Sydenham's 
position was a great advance upon that of his predecessors. In I)f- 
cember, 1839, he had anticipated its creation with the statement that 
he had "received Her Majesty's commands" to direct the Govern- 
ment of the Province in accordance "with the well-understood inter- 
ests and wishes of the people." Subsequent despatches from Lord 
John Russell, which were duly communicated to the Legislature, em- 
bodied instructions to the Governor-General to " maintain the utmost 
possible harmony," and to call to his counsels those only who had 
the " treneral confidence and esteem of the inhabitants of the Province." 

o 

Certain heads of departments were also to retire from the public 
service as often " as sufficient motives of public policy " might sug- 
gest the expediency of such a course. This was progress in the 
direction of popular government though it was still a very vague and 
uncertain stage in the movement. It was certain to come in the end, 
but Lord Sydenham's supposed objection to a radical course at this 
juncture did not afford any prospect of its being unduly hastened 
and, certainly, his advisers at Quebec and Toronto were not anxious 
to promote any sudden change. Such was the general situation when 
Lord Durham's great proposal of union was put into form and shape 
and the first Parliament of the new Province was about to meet. 



CHAPTER XIII 
The Hudson's Bay Company and the Far West 

THE romance of history can give no more striking theme or 
richer subject for the pen of the word-painter than is afforded 
by the annals of the oldest institution of British America — 
the Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson's Bay. 
Founded in 1672, as the result of an exploratory journey through 
the unknown wilds north of Lake Superior by Radissonand DeGroseil- 
lier — two Frenchmen of energetic courage — and their discovery of a 
water route through Lake Winnipeg to the vast inland sea, of ice- 
bound appearance but great promise; chartered by Charles H. 
and governed in its early years by such men as the gallant 
Prince Rupert, the Duke of York who lives in history as King James 
IL, and that astute politician and great soldier, the Duke of Marl- 
borough; having rights and privileges most far-reaching and com- 
plete, extending over a vast and ill-defined territory, providing exclu- 
sive control over trade, lands, mines and minerals, the making of 
laws not repugnant to the laws of England, and the raising of armed 
forces for self-protection ; possessed of all these and other opportuni- 
ties and powers it would have been curious had some important 
result not followed its establishment. 

In one respect the Hudson's Bay Company imitated its more 
famous prototype in the East Indies. It saved a vast region to the 
Crown and people of England and the future Canadian common- 
wealth, which would otherwise have drifted into the hands of France 
during the century of conflict with that would-be American Power 
and, perhaps, have remained there as not being thought worth any 

267 



268 THE HUDSON'S BA Y COMPANY AND THE EAR WEST 

very strong action. Or, if rescued from a possibility which the dis- 
coveries and trade and pioneer activities of New France rendered 
natural, it would probably have fallen to the United States during 
those days of British indifference to territory, or empire, or external 
power, which we know of as the period of Manchester school suprem- 
acy — a time when, if the British part of the world outside the United 
Kingdom had been thrown into the scale against a few million 
pounds of commerce, a few speeches upon the beneficence and God- 
sent greatness of free-trade, or the dread possibilities of war, the 
Empire would too often have risen so high in the air as to disappear 
from the real consideration of the subject. 

THE GREAT WILDERNESS OF THE FAR WEST 

It was a great region which the Company came to rule over. It 
stretched from Lake Superior to Hudson's Bay and far away to the 
frozen north and west ; over countries hardly trod by the most 
adventurous of trappers or familiar even to the most experienced of 
Indian wanderers. It extended over the prairies and in time reached 
the Selkirks and the Rockies; it came to the far shores of the Pacific 
and into the Island of Vancouver, down the coast and over the 
Oregon and Washington of the future ; it expanded north into the 
wilds of Russian America and the Klondike and Alaska of a later 
time. The growth and extension of the Company was, however, 
a slow and natural one. In the earlier days of its historj- the wars 
of the French and English reached the gloomy shores of the great 
Bay, as they did to the furthest southern point of the continent. 
Between 1670 and 1697, the Company lost ^215,000 through French 
incursions — a very large sum in those days. And so matters con- 
tinued for nearly a century. But, despite the issues of loss or gain, 
of war or peace, the Company kept on its way and built forts, traded 
with the Indians, fought the French if need be, increased its stock, 
and managed to make profits so large in some years as to far more 




THE HON. LUC LUTELLIER DE ST. JUST 
Lieutenant-Governor of Quebec, 1876-79 



THE HON. SIR ALBERT I. SMITH 
K.C.M.G. 





THE HON. SIR ADAMS G. ARCHIBALD THE HON. THOMAS D'ARCY McGEE, M.P. 

K.C.M .G. 
Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba and of Nova Scotia 



Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia. 



THE HUDSON'S B.IY COMPANY AND THE EAR WEST 271 

than counterbalance incidental losses. Everywhere throughout the wil- 
derness its traders journeyed from fort to fort, meeting the Indians 
in picturesque pow-wow, and exchanging articles of trivial value but 
pretty appearance for almost priceless furs, or for the more common 
ones which were then so exceedingly plentiful without being deficient in 
value. Everywhere they found the element of adventure, the weird 
entertainment of savage life, the pleasures of a wild liberty, the joy of 
the chase over boundless resrions teeminof with crame and animal life. 

While the mastery of the continent remained at issue between 
England and France the Company was not subject to much external 
interference or control, outside of the raids upon its territory already 
mentioned. In 1720, it was, therefore, able to treble its capital stock 
for a second time and to continue paying its share-holders comfortable 
dividends. But, after the supremacy of England became an undis- 
puted fact, attention was naturally directed to the monopoly of the 
Company, to the natural riches of the region it controlled, and to the 
possibility of sharing in its profitable trade. Individual traders first 
drifted into the country, and then came the organization of the North- 
West Company at Montreal, in 1774, with such untiring and energetic 
men as Stuart, McGillivray and McTavish as its pioneers. In 1798, 
the " X. Y." Company was formed but amalgamated seven years later 
with its Montreal rival. Meanwhile, the Americans had come in to 
increase the competition by the formation of the Mackinaw Company, 
and in 1809 the famous South-West Company was organized by John 
Jacob Astor. A little later he formed the Pacific Fur Company, and 
up to 1813 maintained a tremendous struggle with his various rivals. 
In that year, however, he gave in to the Nor'-Westers and sold the 
whole business to them for some $80,000. 

During the next few years the competition and jealousy of the 
two great remaining Companies were intense. The Hudson's Bay con- 
cern was, for the time being, outstripped by its opponent in energy, 



272 THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY AND THE FAR WEST 

knowlcdi^e of the country and establishment of trading jjosts. Owing 
to the system of partnership by which officers had the opportunity 
of becoming personally interested in its business, the North-West 
Company obtained better men than did the other, and, moreover, 
benefited largely by the employment of French-Canadian voyagairs, 
trappers and traders — men accustomed to the wild life of the West, 
able and willing to obe\- their superiors, despite occasional lapses into 
recklessness, and with pronounced knowledge of the peculiarities and 
habits of the Indians upon whose assistance much depended. The 
older Company, on the other hand, preferred to employ hardy and 
vigorous North-of-Scotland men, who, though reliable and honest, 
were too unbending in their intercourse with the natives, and there- 
fore unpopular. This trade contest did much incidental good in open- 
ing up the country. The fur-traders of the two Companies pushed 
their explorations and traffic in every direction — away to the Peace 
River and Athabaska and the Great Slave Lake, over the Rockies into 
New Caledonia, or British Columbia — and amongst them all none was 
more active or successful than John Stuart, of the Nor'-Westers. 

ALE.XANDER MACKENZIE AND OTHER EXTLOKERS 

But the greatest name amongst the many who endured unknown 
hardships and met every form of peril, in order to provide the modern 
map of a vast civilized region, is that of Alexander Mackenzie. Be- 
tween 1789 and 1793, this intrepid traveller discovered the great 
river which bears his name and followed it to the Arctic seas. He 
explored the Peace River to its source and was the first white man 
to penetrate the Rockies and the Selkirks and pass through those 
mighty barriers to the Pacific Ocean. On the coast of the Pacific, at 
Dean Inlet, there are still to be seen inscribed on a rock the words : 
"Alexander Mackenzie, from Canada, by land, 2jnd July, 1793." He 
lived to be knighted b\' his Sovereign and to appreciate in some 
measure the greatness of his own work. Mackenzie was, durintr this 



THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY AND THE EAR WEST 273 

period, a member of the North-West Company, but others who 
contributed to the general process of exploration were so mixed up 
between the two great concerns that it is hardly necessary to differ- 
entiate here. David Thompson explored the Nelson, Churchill and 
Saskatchewan Rivers, and was the first to follow the Columbia through 
the nigged passes of the Rocky Mountains to the coast. 

Alexander Henry, Gabriel Fanchon, Ross Cox, Alexander 
Ross, D. W. Harman and John McLeod did splendid service. 
Robert Campbell discovered the Pelly River and traced it through 
varied wanderings to the far Yukon. He afterwards made a famous 
journey through the wilds of the West and over 9,700 miles of terri- 
tory in a dog-sled, or on snow-shoes. Simon Fraser, in 1806, dis- 
covered and explored the great mountain river of British Columbia 
which bears his name. In 1S2S, Sir George Simpson, the Governor 
of the Hudson's Bay Company, traversed in a canoe the same 
turbulent river from near its source to the ocean into which it enters 
— carrying his frail craft when the whirlpools and boiling waters were 
too strong for even his skill. He made other long and important 
journeys throughout the great regions which he governed. 

Meanwhile, explorations and discoveries had been also made by 
adventurous spirits not connected with these Companies. In 1731, 
Pierre Gauthier de la Verendrye had led a French expedition up into 
the then unknown prairies of the West and discovered Lakes Mani- 
toba and Winnipegosis. Between 1769 and 1772, Samuel Hearne 
had journeyed over a thousand miles in canoes and on foot to the west 
of Hudson's Bay, discovered the Great Slave Lake, and traced the 
Coppermine River to its mouth in the Arctic Ocean. Shortly after 
this time Captain Cook had touched at Nootka Sound, on the coast 
of Vancouver Island, and then sailed north to Behrin^'s Strait. At 
the very time that Mackenzie was writing his inscription on the shores 
of the Pacific, Captain Vancouver was exploring the same region front 



274 THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY AND THE FAR WEST 

the sea and sailincr around the island which bears his name. In later 

O 

years Sir John FrankHn, Sir George Back, Dr. Rae, Sir John Rich- 
ardson, P. W. Deane and Thomas Simpson, led in the overland search 
for the North-West Passage ; and their discoveries, surveys and 
records afford not only a striking picture of peril and privation, but 
a most valuable fund of information regarding the then unknown 
wilds of the farthest north. 

As this work of increasing knowledge and promoting trade pro- 
ceeded through varied phases of personal adventure and commercial 
rivalry attempts were naturally made to establish settlements. The 
great effort was that of Lord Selkirk in the ten years following i8il. 

LORD SELKIRK AM) IHS WORK 

He was an extraordinary man in many ways. Proud and inde- 
pendent in sentiment, stern and uncompromising in determination, 
vigorous and enthusiastic in policy, he was well fitted to be a pioneer 
of colonization. Fairly successful in early efforts in Prince Edward 
Island, failing in the attempt to create interest in settling a great 
estate which he had bought in Upper Canada, he finally turned his 
attention to the North-West and resolved to write his name large in 
the making of that country. After studying the position of affairs 
there and in Montreal he made up his mind that the Mudson's Bay 
Company were the eventual masters of the situation and decided to 
throw in his lot with them. Repurchased, in iSii, a controlling 
interest in its stock — some ^^40,000 out of /^ioo,ooo — and obtained 
from the Directors, amongst whom were many of his friends or rela- 
tives, a erant of 116,000 square miles of territory on the condition 
that he should establish a colony and furnish the Company with labour- 
ers as required. This was practically the founding of the present 
Province of Manitoba. 

Lord Selkirk at once brought out a ship-load of the Duchess of 
Sutherland's tenants and after varied difficulties and dangers reached 



THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY AND THE FAR WEST 275 

the junction of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers where, near the site 
of the present City of Winnipeg, the Red River Settlement was 
estabhslied. During the years that followed these, colonists, and 
others who joined them from time to time, suffered in every way 
in which it is possible for pioneers to have trouble. The Nor'-West- 
ers considered the soil to be theirs and every means of annoyance in 
the power of a strong corporation to infiict, were freely used, as occa- 
sion arose, till they culminated in a skirmish in 1816 when Governor 
Semple, who was acting for Lord Selkirk, and a number of his colo- 
nists, were killed by an armed band of Nor'-Westers. 

It was a typical incident, though an unusually violent one, of the 
conflictwhich was waged all over the North-West duringthe first twenty 
years of the nineteenth century between the two great Companies. In 
this case, however, it aroused the lion that was in the Earl of Selkirk 
and, though just recovering from illness, he obtained a force of eighty 
soldiers and a couple of small cannon. With this troop he rushed 
around the Great Lakes from Montreal and through the wilderness, 
captured the chief agent and several partners of the North-West Com- 
pany, and sent them to York for trial on various charges of murder, 
arson and robbery. Of course, they were not convicted at such a dis- 
tance from the scene and under the irregular conditions of their 
arrest ; but the lesson was a good one and for the next few years, 
until the Hudson's Bay Company absorbed its rival in 1821, there 
was more of peace and quietness in the vast region of their rivalry. 

Lord Selkirk had to suffer from subsequent verdicts for false 
imprisonment, but in the meantime he had discounted further inter- 
ference with his cherished settlement. He could not, however, con- 
trol the obstacles offered by nature and, though he over and over 
again brought his settlers supplies of food, seed-grain and implements 
at his own expense, they yet had to suffer untold hardships from 
exceptional cold, from floods and famine, and from a unique plague of 



276 THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY AND THE EAIi WEST 

grasshoppers which extended over two years and destroyed every 
vestige of crop and growing food product. Eventually, the colonists 
and their determined patron succeeded and, though the progress was 
slow, it was more and more sure as the years went on. When Lord 
Selkirk died in 1820 he could see that tliis success was at least prob- 
able though it is doubtful indeed if the Father of Manitoba could 
have anticipated the vast golden wheatfields of the future, the whistle 
of the locomotive over the wilderness of his time, or the roar of traf- 
fic in a large city where he had sheltered in their humble huts the 
first shiverinCT settlers on the banks of the Red River. 

As the years passed the settlement grew in size and importance 
and Fort Garry became the head-quarters of the Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany which, in 1S36, purchased for ^84,000 the land granted to Lord 
Selkirk in 181 1. Gradually the population was added to by French 
trappers and hunters and by Half-breeds who came from the unions of 
the French with Indian women and, in time, constituted a population 
of thousands. Sir George Simpson assumed control of much of the 
Company's affairs after its absorption of the Nor'-Westers and, from 
1821 for thirty-five years, he was the leading spirit of the North West. 
He organized the interests of the Company, explored and extended its 
vast territories, reconciled conflicting conditions and established a vigor- 
ous personal control over everything. l")uring this period travellers and 
explorers were sure of assistance and support at every fort or factory 
of the Company, while its business steadily grew in volume and profits. 
A network of trading posts was constituted right across the continent 
and, when the Governor retired in 1S56. the Hudson's Bay Company, 
with 152 regular establishments and over 3,000 permanent servants, 
dominated the religious, political and social life of the North-West. 

Steady progress had also been made in monopolizing the fur trade 
of the Pacific coast. Forts were established, routes laid out and main- 
tained, Indians conciliated and employed. In 1S47 the Governor of 



THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY AND THE EAR WEST 277 

the Company in London informed Lord Grey, Colonial Secretary, 
that it was willincr to " undertake the sfovernment and colonization of 
all the territories belontrincf to the Crown in North America, and 
receive a grant accordingly." While creditable to its ambition and 
self-confidence such an extensive proposal could hardly commend itself 
to the authorities ; but in the following year a more moderate one 
which involved the management of New Caledonia and the grant of 
Vancouver Island for ten years under a pledge of colonization, was 
accepted after considerable debate in the House of Commons. 

The leading spirit of the Company in what is now the Province 
of British Columbia and the States of Washington and Oregon, was, 
during these years, the vigorous and intrepid Sir James Douglas. 
Like Simpson, in the central regions of the West, he rose out of the 
amalgamation of 1S21, became Chief Factor of the Pacific region in 
1S42, established a trading post where the City of Victoria now stands, 
on \'ancouver Island, and, in 1851, became Governor of the Island 
under the Company. In 1859 the Imperial authorities took over this 
region owing to the Company not having kept its agreement to 
colonize but Douglas was maintained in his position as Governor of 
the island as well as of the mainland which was now to be known as 
the Province, or Colony, of British Columbia. 

INTERNATIONAL DIFFICULTIES OF THE COMPANY 

Meanwhile, the Company had been subject to various international 
difficulties, or complications, as a result of the advance of its interests 
and influence into regions north and south of British Columbia — or 
New Caledonia, as it then was. In 1833, it had taken advantage of 
the clause in the Anglo-Russian Treaty of 1825 which provided for 
the free navigation of streams running through Alaska from their 
source in British territory, and had pushed forward a trading post to 
the Stikine River, besides fitting out a brig for the protection of its 
property. Governor Wrangel, of Alaska, promptly objected to these 



278 THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPAXY AND THE FAR WESl 

Ijroceedings on behalf of the Russian Fur Company ; appealed to 
the authorities at St. Petersburg and obtained a promise that the free 
navigation clause should be terminated in the following year; and then, 
w-ithout waiting for a legal excuse, forced the British Company's vessel 
to retire from Russian territory under penalty of immediate destruction. 
The British Government was at once appealed to, ^20,000 damages 
claimed, and a diplomatic difficulty precipitated. Eventually, after a 
conference had been held in London, the question was settled between 
the two fur companies themselves, the British one obtaining the lease 
of Alaskan privileges and rights for a rental of 2, coo land otter skins 
per annum and a large supply of provisions at moderate rates to the 
Russian colony. The arrangement proved satisfactory and was 
renewed at intervals until Alaska became a United States possession. 
The boundaries of Hudson's Bay territory, or the Company's indem- 
nification for losses sustained in war, had also found a prominent place 
in the Treaties of Ryswick and Utrecht with France, and in the Con- 
vention of London with the United States, in iSiS. 

The most important of these international questions was that con- 
nected with the Company's claim to the region of land now occupied 
by the States of Oregon and Washington. Had it been sustained all 
that great country would have become British territory, the San Juan 
difficulty would have been averted, the rise of Provincial coast cities 
such as Vancouver would not have been checked by the competition 
of Seattle and other places, and the mining interests and resources of 
British Columbia would have had a fuller freedom of development. 

But, by the Treaty of Oregon, these important claims were 
abandoned on the part of England, the country claimed was given 
up to the United States, and a splendid heritage of the future sur- 
rendered for present peace and quietness. The Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany, however, claimed indcmnit)- for its rights of occupation and 
trade and, finally, in 1S63, a commission composed of .Alexander J. 




THE HON. LEMUEL ALLEN WILMOT 
Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick, 1868-73 



THE HON. JOSEPH HOWE 
Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia, 1873 




GEN. SIR WILLIAM FENWICK WILLIAMS 

BART. (OF KARS) 

Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia, lS6o-^7 



MAJOR-GENERAL SIR HOWARD DOUGLAS 

G.C.B. 

Lieuleniint-Oovernor of New Brunswick, 1S24-29 



THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY AND THE FAR IV EST 281 

Johnson, on behalf of the United States, and Sir John Rose, on 
behalf of Great Britain, met at Washington and awarded the com- 
pany $600,000. This was paid, after repeated representations, in two 
instalments — July, 1870, and February, 1871. 

By this time, however, the knell of the Company's ruling power 
h.ad been struck and it had ceased to be a grovernino; and creative 
factor in the making of the Empire The period of its greatest 
influence had been the middle of the nineteenth century when it 
wielded more or less authority over a very wide, though undefined, 
reoion now belonorincr to Great Britain and the United States. 
It then boasted a capital and assets of over $7,000,000, a com- 
plete monoply of trade, and an influence over 150,000 Indians 
which was absolute and, upon the whole, wielded with wisdom and 
kindliness — especially in the restraints imposed upon the sale of liquor. 
But at this time, the Province of Canada had begun to see openings 
for trade and development to the north and west and to feel some 
jealousy of the power held by the Company. The arrangement regard- 
ing Vancouver Island was closely watched both at Toronto and Lon- 
don, as was the growth of the Red River Settlement; while the coming 
lapse of the twenty-one years' grant of exclusive trade given to the 
Company in 183S was borne carefully in mind. As a result of these 
conditions a Select Committee was appointed by the Imperial House 
of Commons, in 1857, ''to consider the state of those British posses- 
sions in North America which are under the license of the Hudson's 
Bay Company, or over which it possesses a License of Trade." 

Mr. Gladstone, Lord J. Russell, Lord Stanley, Mr. Roebuck, Mr. 
Edward Ellice, Mr. Robert Lowe and other well-known public men 
were appointed to this Committee and, after careful and voluminous 
inquiry, it was declared in the final Report that the desire of Canada 
to annex a portion of this vast region for purposes of settlement and 
development was just and reasonable ; that the Red River and 



282 Till-: HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY AND THE FAR WEST 

Saskatchewan districts should be ceded to that Province upon equit- 
able conditions ; that the Company's rule on Vancouver Island should 
cease ; that in view of the danger to the Indians from any system of 
open competition in the fur trade and because of the probable indis- 
criminate destruction of valuable fur-bearing animals under such con- 
ditions, the purely trade monopoly of the Company should be preserved 
for the present. In 1862 the Hon. (afterwards Sir) \V. P. Howland, 
and the Hon. L. V. Sicotte, members of the Canadian Government, 
proceeded to London for the purpose of pressing the annexation 
project upon th(j Im;)erial authorities. During the early part of the 
succeeding year, Sir Edward W. Watkin, an energetic capitalist who 
had been previously interested in the Grand Trunk and Intercolonial 
Railway enterprises and who had visions of a British transconti- 
nental line, organized a Company which took over the assets of the 
old Hudson's Bay corporation, reconstructed it with a capital of 
;^2, 000,000 sterling, and proceeded to negotiate, cordially and com- 
prehensively, with the Canadian and British authorities. 

Sir Edmund W. Head, lately Governor-General of British Amer- 
ica, was Governor of the Company and favoured a complete sale of 
rights and ownership. \"arious negotiations followed between the 
British and Canadian and Company authorities, including a fruitless 
mission in 1865 by the Hon. George Brown and, finally, on December 
14, 1S67, after the confederation of the older Provinces into a Do- 
minion had taken place, the Hon. William McDougall introduced in 
the new House of Commons a series of resolutions upon the subject. 
They declared that the Dominion of Canada should be extended to 
the shores of the Pacific ; that the colonization of the North-West, 
the development of its mineral resources, and the extension of trade 
within its bounds, were alike dependent upon a stable government ; 
and that the welfare of its sparse population would be promoted by 
the extension of Canadian eovernment and institutions over the entire 



THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY AND THE EAR WEST 283 

region. In the following year Mr. McDougall and Sir George Carticr 
went to England to try and arrange terms and, in 1869, the arrange- 
ments were finally consummated between the Governments concerned. 
Canada had claimed the whole region as of right ; it now accepted 
the territory upon condition of paying _;;^300,ooo sterling to the Com- 
pany. It granted at the same time, a twentieth of all lands surveyed 
for settlement in what was called Rupert's Land, and gave certain 
guarantees against undue taxation. The Company, on its side, 
retained possession of its historic trading-posts and maintained its 
influence with the natives and its special facilities for the fur-trade. 
Though the trading monopoly was lost, and the progress of settle- 
ment and railways in time changed the nature of much of its business, 
the Hudson's Bay Company continued to be, and is to-day, a great 
power in the commerce and up-building 'of the North-West. 

It was truly an Imperial heritage which the new Dominion thus 
acquired. Its lakes were like great seas, its rivers ran in some cases 
2,000 miles from the source to the sea, its fertile and unknown 
wheatfields were to prove practically illimitable, its atmosphere was 
found to be bracinsf and full of a tonic which can be found nowhere 
else. Its seasons were beautiful and pleasant in their warmth, healthy 
and strength-giving in their cold. Upon its vast plains the flowers 
of spring-time bloomed with peculiar beauty ; over head the sum- 
mer sun blazed in a strength which forced the crops to a rich and 
rare fruition. The rivers and lakes were found to teem with fish, 
the plains, near the Rockies, to be pre-eminently protected from storm 
and suited to the raising of cattle, the surface of the soil to cover vast 
coal preserves, petroleum fields and, in the far north, untold wealth 
in gold and iron and copper. But most of these facts were unknown 
or unappreciated in 1869 and a period of storm and stress and slow 
development had to be faced before they reached the consciousness 
of the Canadian people and the knowledge of the world. ' 



CHAPTER XIV 
Struggles for Responsible Government 

NEITHER the troubles of 1837, nor Lord IJurham's famous 
Report, nor the Union of the Canadas in 1841, nor the 
promising administration of Lord Sydenham, had brought 
into play or practice the real principles of responsible government — 
principles which involve a Prime Minister selected by the Queen's 
Representative ; a Cabinet chosen by the Premier and, together with 
him, responsible to the House of Commons ; a series of organized 
departments of administration, each in charge of a responsible 
Minister. Even the Liberal leaders and most advanced Reformers 
had failed as yet to plan out such a complete programme and, without 
every one of the conditions named and including a defined conception 
of the Governor-General's relation to the Imperial Government on 
the one hand and to the Colonial Parliament on the other, no system 
could hope to be satisfactory. 

THE CRUDE IDEAS OV RESPONSIBLE COVE RXMENT 

Lord Sydenham had the brains and the tact and natural state- 
craft to have worked out some result which might have averted years 
of turmoil and much dissatisfaction ; but he was carried away by an 
accidental fall from his horse which ended in death on September 
19th, 1841. He was not supposed to be entirely in favour of the crude 
ideas of responsible government which were then in vogue but he 
would undoubtedly have found a conciliatory way out of the difficulties 
which developed later and reached such a height in tlie early days of 
Lord Elgin. His successor, as Governor-General, was Sir Charles 

Bagot, a man of ability who had held the Ministership to Washington 
2S4 



STRUGGLES FOR RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 285 

in days when it was perhaps the most difficult diplomatic post in Her 
Majesty's service. He followed, somewhat tentatively, in the steps 
of Lord Sydenham and died in March 1843, without having had any 
serious friction with his advisers. Sir Charles Metcalfe, who came 
out in his place and under appointment by a Conservative Ministry at 
home, was a very different man from either of his predecessors and 
proved to be the centre of one of the most stormy periods in 
Canadian politics. 

THE TORY LEADERS 

Meanwhile, events had shown the action of the Tory party in 
supporting the Union to be well described as one of self-sacrifice. 
They were aware that a House to be elected under the auspices of a 
French majority in Lower Canada, using, the privilege of the polls for 
the first time since the days of the rebellion, and in Upper Canada 
under t\\& prestige afforded to their opponents by supposed instructions 
from England to grant responsible government, could not but contain 
a majority opposed to them and to their principles. Naturally, such 
was the case, and the House which was met by that staunchest of 
Tory leaders, the Hon. W. H. Draper, as head of the Executive 
Council of the new Union, was largely Radical and French. The 
Ministry, if it could even yet be called by that title, was composed of 
Mr. Draper, Hon. R. B. Sullivan, Hon. S. B. Harrison, Hon. Dominick 
Daly, Hon. C. R. Ogden, Hon. J. H. Dunn, Hon. C. D. Day, Hon. 
H. H. Killaly, and, last but not least, the Hon. Robert Baldwin. 

Such a combination of determined Tories with only one 
prominent Liberal, in the person of Baldwin, and without a French 
representative, naturally could have little place in the confidence of 
the new Assembly. Its very composition shows how slightly and how 
vaguely the real principles of responsible government were under- 
stood. The fact is that the Governor-General was still his own Prime 

Minister and still the tenacious holder of power which he believed to 
16 



286 STRUGGLES FOR RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 

be essential to th(j interests of the Mother-country and British con- 
nection. He could not believe that it was a part of his duty to 
surrender the prerogatives of the Crown, in relation to appointments 
and the composition of his Executive Council, to any Minister or 
body of Ministers who must under the existing circumstances of the 
case be responsible to a party in the Assembly which sympathized very 
largely with the objects of the late insurrection, and some of whose 
leaders seemed opposed to the principles of British connection which 
the Governor-General was sworn and bound to guard. 

It was a difficult situation to face and Lord Sydenham in his 
brief period of power had temporized and had, no doubt, planned 
ways and means to meet it which he was never able to carrj' 
out. Sir Charles Bagot did a little more than this when the inevitable 
conflict between his Draper Executive and the House took place and 
Baldwin resigned office ; he formed an Executive under the joint 
leadership of L. H. Lafontaine and Baldwin himself. It was a Liberal 
Ministry with a fair French representation and, with the experience 
of after years in the minds of both Governor and Ministers, might iiave 
lasted some time. But such conditions could not, of course, e.xist and, 
meanwhile, Sir Charles Metcalfe arrived on the scene. 

SIR CHARLES METCALFE AS GOVERNOR 

The new Governor had served his apprenticeship in the rule 
of millions of men in India and of lesser communities in the West 
Indies. He was a strong-willed, self-sustained, patriotic and conscien- 
tious man, devoted to the .service of his Sovereign and with something 
of an older-time spirit of sincerity and loyalty. But he was hope- 
lessly out of touch with democratic aspirations, without sympathy for 
anything which seemed to touch, or threaten, any element of the 
Royal prerogative and was, naturally, therefore, inclined to the views 
of the Tory party. As a Governor responsible to the Crown he did 
his duty freelv and manfully : as a Governor responsible to the 



STRUGGLES FOR RESPONSFR/.E GOVERNMENT 287 

people he failed entirely. Yet, like so many of his predecessors, he was 
not greatly to blame, certainly not to be condemned with that fierce 
and free assurance which characterizes the political writers of that 
time, and frequently of the present, when commemting upon his char- 
acter and career. To him the Crown meant England and the Em- 
pire. As a servant of his country and the Representative of his 
Sovereign duty lay to him in what would best conserve their inter- 
ests ; and, like preceding Governors, with the possible exception of 
Lord Durham, he conceived those interests and a united future to 
turn upon the maintenance of every power or prerogative still held 
by the Crown. 

In deliberately assuming such ground he was mistaken from all 
the standpoints in the experience of an after-time, but he was neither 
unpatriotic, nor wicked, nor guilty of tyranny, nor worthy of the 
wholesale abuse poured out by the Liberal and Radical papers and 
politicians of the next two years upon his devoted head. There was 
no doubt as to his attitude and opinions from the first. Sir Charles 
arrived in 1843, and promptly declared that he intended to keep the 
patronage in his own hands, and to make ofificial appointments with- 
out the advice of his Executive Council. Certain vacant positions 
he proceeded to fill at once, and the Baldwin-Lafontaine Government 
immediately resigned of^ce. Mr. Draper re-assumed the reins, a 
general election followed and the Governor and his Tory Council 
were sustained by a fair majority. During the ensuing two years a 
loud and continuous discussion went on throughout the two sections 
of the Province, and much light was thrown on the issue, despite the 
virulent tone adopted by many of the disputants. Sir Charles Met- 
calfe, meantime, was raised to the peerage — a slight compensation, 
Indeed, for his determination to do what he deemed his duty at all 
hazards and despite the endurance of a cancer which was eating Into 
his face and slowly but surely destroying his life. He would not 



288 STRUGGLES FOR RESPONSIBLE GOVERN ME XT 

accept the relief of retirement and was upheld during many months 
of intense suffering by a belief that he understood the situation in 
Canada and was in a position to better maintain the authority of the 
Crown than any possible successor. From his point of view this was 
undoubtedly a fact, and the appreciation and admiration of those 
opposed to responsible government was his to the fullest degree — 
including the support of such a keen observer and slashing polemist 
as Dr. Egerton Ryerson. 

THE EARL OF ELGIn's GOVERNORSHir 

But there are limits to human endurance and toward the close 
of 1845 Lord Metcalfe returned home to die. His successor, for a 
brief period, was Earl Cathcart, and then in 1847 came the Earl of 
Elgin. Like Lord Durham this really great administrator possessed 
the rare faculty of grasping all the threads of a tangled situation at 
once ; of brinCTinor a chaos of conflictinof views and honest sentiments 
and almost patriotic antagonisms into concrete form under the eye of 
a clear and impartial mind. He was able to see that although Lafon- 
taine may have played with the burning brands of sedition in its 
earlier stages and Baldwin have nursed a moderate sympathy with 
many of the grievances of the rebels, yet they were now men of 
maturity of judgment, honesty of purpose, and sincere loyalty to Bri- 
tish connection. He was able to understand that while Draper was 
in apparently bitter antagonism to the wishes of a somewhat fluctua- 
ting majority of the people and McNab an earnest and avowed oppo- 
nent of popular government, yet the one was an honourable, patriotic 
and able man and the other a citizen of whose sincerity and undoubted 
services the country had every reason to be proud. He was able to 
grasp the e.xistence of a love for liberty amongst Liberals which was 
above and apart from the much-feared principles of American demo- 
cracy ; a love for power amongst the Tories which was superior to 
and distinct from the mere desire for ofnce and position. 




THE HON. GEORGE BROWN 

Senator of Canada 



STRUGGLES FOR RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 291 

Moreover, the Liberals were again in power in England and 
willing to risk a possible loss in British prerogative and nominal 
power in return for some release from burdensome responsibility and 
for a measure of real peace in the Colonies. His instructions were 
therefore more elastic, his powers wider and the room for exercising 
natural ability and faculty for statesmanlike observation, much greater 
than had been the case before. While these facts stand to the credit 
of English Liberalism at this juncture they do not relieve it from sus- 
picion as to the motive underlying the action. That it turned out 
well and promoted loyalty while broadening the bounds of liberty is 
true, but that it was part of a general tendency to loosen the ties of 
Imperial unity and encourage the development of Colonial indepen- 
dence, is also true, and is amply proved by Lord Elgin's published 
correspondence during this period.* 

It was now the early stages of the Manchester School ascendency 
and, while good in this particular instance came out of an evil which 
would have wrecked the Empire In its complete development, yet jus- 
tice should be done to some of the Tories who opposed responsible 
government in England because they feared independence as well as 
to the Liberals who granted it because they did not greatly dread the 
possibility of independence. Hitherto British politics had only occa- 
sionally been exhibited in matters of Colonial administration and then 
only in details. Upon the broad principle of maintaining the Gover- 
nor's prerogative and refusing full responsible government Home- 
parties had been united. Now they divided, for a time, only to combine 
in some twenty years of practical indifference to all Colonial affairs — ^a 
policy of letting the Colonies do much as they pleased. 

Lord Elgin was supposed to be a Conservative in politics, but 
people had come to discount any probabilities based upon individual 
preferences of this nature. Sir Francis Bond Head had been heralded 

* Walrond's Life and Letters of the Earl of Elgin and Kincardine. 



N 
292 STRUGGLES FOR RESPONSIBLE COl'ERNMENr 

as an linglish Liberal and had most strenuously supported the Cana- 
dian Tories ; Sir Charles Bagot was a Conservative but had held the 
reins with considerable fairness ; Lord Metcalfe himself had been 
announced as a Liberal in English politics. The new Governor- 
General was, as a matter of fact, either above these distinctions or 
had made; up his mind to be uninfluenced by them. And he found 
one factor greatly in his favour. Preceding Governors had found 
Canadian affairs a hopeless jumble of conflicting policies and ideas 
with only one clearly defined principle visible upon the stormy sur- 
face — the Tory one of opposition to democratic innovation. The 
Liberals had not known exactly what they wanted, or if they did, in 
an occasional and individual case, understand what was required 
and how it was to be worked out, there was no authoritative medium 
for its presentation, no clear summary of purpose and plan for popu- 
ular approval. 

THE PRINCIPLES OF THE LIBERAL PL.\TFORM 

There was now, however, a Liberal platform of the most pro- 
nounced kind. Its cardinal principle was that a Provincial Government, 
should, in the fullest measure, be a Parliamentary Government and 
that no Ministry could or should stay in office after it had lost the 
control of the Assembly. If defeat came in the House and an appeal 
was made to the country its resignation could be held over until the 
result of the elections was known. Should that result be adverse resicr- 
nation must instantly follow. This involved the change of the Exe- 
cutive Council into a departmental Government, such as that of Great 
Britain, and a complete alteration in the position of the Governor- 
General. Instead of being merely the guardian of British interests, 
or supposed British interests in the Province, he was, as the Queen's 
Representative, to take the Queen's place in the constitution. " What 
the Queen cannot do in England," they declared, " the Governor 
should not be permitted to do in Canada." In making Imperial 



STRUGGLES FOR RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 293 

appointments the Crown is bound to consult its advisers ; in making 
Provincial appointments the Governor should be similarly bound. No 
Governor should identify himself with any political party — and, it 
might have been fair to add, no political party should place itself in 
open antagonism to the Governor. 

The majority in the Assembly, for the time being, they considered 
to embody the existing opinion of the country and, provided such 
views did not clash with Imperial interests, they should not be inter- 
fered with by the Governor. Local matters should not be referred to 
the Colonial Office for settlement. " To Canadians alone must the 
Governor look for ratification and approval of his conduct in the 
management of their domestic affairs ; to the Imperial Government 
alone he is to render an account of his stewardship in the conserva- 
tion of Imperial interests." Such a policy was apparently complete 
in its parts, logical in its application * and loyal in its final statement 
that the Liberals of Canada desired to maintain the Crown, through 
its Representative in the Province, " as an harmonious component of 
their local constitution." 

It was the practical result of three or four decades of groping in 
the dark for a solution of difficulties which were inevitable, and not 
in themselves disastrous, and which would have naturally moderated 
under the influences of time and British progressiveness without all 
the turmoil and tumult which had actually marked the process. It 
was a policy which, in its full form, the Governor-General could now 
accept, and it was the first time that such had really been the case. 
Theory in multitudinous shapes had so far influenced very largely the 
Liberal party; they had now united logic with theory and Lord Elgin 

* The one weakness in the structure eventually evolved under Lord Elgin, and acted upon up to Confederation, 
was the practical absence of a Prime Minister, and the tendency of ihe people to still look to the Governor-General 
when they should have looked to the Ministry alone. Too much stress was laid by agitators during all this period 
upon the attitude of the Governor toward the people; too little attention was paid to the position of the people 
toward t'.ie Governor. It was not till the Dominion was created that the checks and balances necessary to a smoothly 
working constitution came into full operation. 



294 STRUGGLES FOR RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 

was able to transform the combination into practice. He did not 
meet the problem with any profound belief that because a system is 
old it is good, or because it is new it is better. Speaking on a politi- 
cal platform at Southampton in 1S41, he had declared himself a Con- 
servative " not upon principles of exclusionism ; or illiberalism of 
sentiment ; but because I believe that our admirable constitution pro- 
claims between men of all classes and degrees in the body-politic a 
sacred bond of brotherhood in the recognition of a common warfare 
here and a common hope hereafter. I am a Conservative not because 
I am adverse to improvement, not because I am unwilling to repair 
what is wasted, or to supply what is defective in the political fabric, 
but because I am satisfied that in order to improve effectually you 
must be resolved most religiously to preserve." 

Such sentiments of moderation should have conciliated parties 
in Canada, and would, indeed, have been an excellent basis upon 
which to act amongst themselves. Though he had only served for a 
time as Governor of Jamaica and was not at this period a large figure 
in politics or administration at home. Lord Elgin had an undoubted 
reputation for ability and was known to have pleased all parties in 
Jamaica — a very difficult task. Moreover, he had just been married 
a second time and to no less a personage than a daughter of the Lord 
Durham whose memory was now enshrined in the heart of English- 
speaking Liberals all over British America. The new Governor 
received a warm reception everywhere and at Montreal struck the 
keynote of his future administration by saying : " I am sensible that 
I shall best maintain the prerogative of the Crown, and most effectu- 
ally carry out the instructions with which Her Majesty has honoured 
me, by manifesting a due regard for the wishes and feelings of the 
people and by seeking the advice and assistance of those who enjoy 
their confidence." Lord Elgin impressed himself favourably upon 
everyone. Young and energetic, genial in temperament and manner, 



STRUGGLES FOR RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 295 

dignified in bearing and, at the same time, pleasant and accessible, 
he also proved an admirable speaker and soon won the reputation of 
being the best in the Province. Like Lord Dufferin, in after years, 
he could be depended upon to say in graceful and fitting words the 
right thing in the right place. 

FALL OF THE DRAPER MINISTRY 

The Draper Ministry was now tottering to its fall, and the Tory 
party, as being identified with a policy which had become one of 
simple drifting with the tide, was like a boat without a rudder. Mr. 
Draper had tired of a prolonged struggle, in which the fates seemed 
against him, and wanted to retire to the Bench. But there was no 
one upon whom the party could unite, and there was no policy other 
than the negative one of standing by certain old-fashioned principles 
which the Imperial Government was said to have repudiated and 
which now depended, for even temporary maintenance, upon the will- 
ingness of the Governor-General to occupy the same political boat as 
the Executive. Lord Elorin took occasion at once to intimate that 
he would do nothing of the sort. So far as he was concerned parties 
must sink or swim upon their own ability to breast the tide of public 
opinion. He would give their leaders the fullest freedom of action 
and would co-operate cordially with the successful party in carrying 
on the local Government according to the wishes of the majority. 
To Draper and McNab and others this seemed a sheer abrogation of 
the functions of an Imperial administrator ; a sacrifice of one of the 
few remaining shreds of British power over Provincial affairs. But 
to it they had to submit. 

Lord Elgin did not act hastily or rashly. His Ministry had not 
the confidence of the Assembly, but he saw that it was in process of 
natural dissolution and he let things take their course. In May, 1S47, 
Mr. Draper resigned and accepted a position as Judge of the Court 
of Queen's Bench for Upper Canada, and nine years later became 



296 STRUGGLES FOR RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 

Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas. He lived to see the 
Dominion an accomplished fact and the principles he had so strongly 
and conscientiously opposed, forming the keynote of a national con- 
stitution. He, himself, served as President of Ontario's Court of 
Appeal for many years, was the recipient of a C. B. from the Queen, 
and died in 1877, with the highest possible reputation for judicial 
ability, industry and stainless honour. His political successor for a 
brief period was Mr. Henry Sherwood, a Tory of the Tories, whose 
Ministry in its reconstructed state was chiefly notable for the presence 
of Mr. John A. Macdonald, who had entered the Assembly from 
Kingston in 1844, and for the absence of French Canadian repre- 
sentatives — only one being obtainable after prolonged negotiations. 
The Tory party was still, in reputation, the part)- opposed to French 
influence, the party of believers in French disloyalty, the party of 
sympathizers with everything which would restrict French develop- 
ment along distinct lines. The Sherwood Ministry held on to power 
with the utmost persistence. They could, however, pass no measure 
of value, were continually defeated in the House, and only managed 
to strug^o'le throueh a session on that sufferance which feels that the 
last stages of an unendurable situation have been reached and must 
be settled by a coming general election. 

The general position of affairs was very gloomy. The repeal of 
the Corn-Laws and of the preferential British tariff had plunged the 
Province into financial disaster and caused intense popular discontent. 
The feeling between French and English in Canada East was still 
acute. The immigration of thousands of Irish paupers, seeking escape 
from the frightful famine of the time, had cast upon Canadian shores 
a multitude of people who arrived there simply to die of the ship- 
fever which had developed during their voyage, or else to throw them- 
selves upon Canadian charity and kindness. They did not ask for 
help in vain. At Quebec, during 1847, o^'cr 100,000 persons landed 



STRUGGLES FOR RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENl 297 

and of these 10,000 were to be found in the hospitals at one time. 
Other places, such as Montreal and Toronto and Kingston, faced the 
same trouble and with the same generosity nursed the sick, succoured 
the starving and cared for the homeless. In Montreal, alone, there 
were 1,000 orphans left destitute as a result of this appalling immi- 
gration and disease. Sick and suffering people streamed up the St. 
Lawrence, pushed towards the Lakes in over-crowded steamers and 
burdened the inhabitants of the western towns and villages. The 
response was everywhere the same, and from the poor as well as the 
wealthy, from the Indian and the negro as well as the white man, 
relief poured in to the Committees which were formed. Large sums 
were ultimately distributed in Ireland as well as in Canada. Deeds of 
heroism in the hospitals of the time were many — the heroism of 
nurses and clergymen who were willing to die, if necessary, in order to 
nurse and minister to the sick. More than one Roman Catholic ecclesi- 
astic perished in this memorable season of suffering and self-sacrifice. 
Such events could not but re-act upon the political situation 
when preparations were being made for an election which was des- 
tined to be of the greatest importance as an historical landmark and 
as finally decisive of a change already impending. Lord Elgin did 
his best, in the meantime, to soothe asperities and to promote a good- 
feelincr which might lessen the bitterness of the contest. He made a 
tour of Canada East and won the hearts of the people everywhere 
with his silvery speech and pleasing manner. Amongst the French- 
Canadians he carried everything before him by speaking to the 
Jiabitants in their native tongue. Early in December, 1847, the 
Assembly was dissolved, on January 24, 1848, the elections were 
held and both divisions of the Province swept by the Liberals. Par- 
liament met in February, the Hon. A. N. Morin was elected Speaker 
of the Assembly over Sir A. N. McNab on a party vote, the Govern- 
ment was defeated on the Address and promptly resigned. A new 



298 STRUGGLES FOR RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 

Ministry was at once formed which is notable not only as being the 
first under the system of actual responsible government, but as con- 
taining many able men and as initiating the recognition of an equal 
right amongst French and English representatives to a place in its 
composition. In accordance, also, with an arrangement which was 
now to become an unwritten law there was an Attorney-General from 
Canada East and one from Canada West, holding equal powers and 
controlling the political patronage and party policy of their respective 
communities. One was supposed to be Premier, but his position was 
very vague and his actual superiority still more so — a condition which 
illustrates the difficulties of the situation and the fact that the EnofHsh 
system in its full form was not found applicable b)- even the Liberal 
party in its day of power. The Government was made up as follows: 

CANADA EAST OR LOWER CANADA 
Hon. Louis H. Lafontaine, .ALttorney-General, 
Hon. James Lesslie, President of Executive Council, 
Hon. R. E. Caron, Speaker of Legislative Council, 
Hon. E. P. Tache, Chief Commissioner of Public Works, 
Hon. T. C. Aylwin, Solicitor-General. 

CANADA WEST OR UPPER CANADA 
Hon. Robert Baldwin, .■Vttorney-General, 
Hon. R. B. Sullivan, Provincial Secretary, 
Hon. Francis Hincks, Inspector-General, 
Hon. J. H. Price, Commissioner of Crown Lands, 
Hon. Malcolm Cameron, .Assistant-Commissioner of Public Works, 
Hon. W. Hume Blake. Solicitor-General. 

The succeeding session was a short but satisfactory one and the 
storm of the coming period was as yet only a tiny cloud on the hori- 
zon. Lord Elgin found the new Government amenable, conciliatory, 
and far indeed from what the Liberals were honestly believed to be 
by the late Lord Metcalfe. He was not asked to surrender any 




THE REV. DR. GEORGE DOUGLAS 



THE REV. PRINCIPAL CAVEN, D.D. 





THE REV. DR. JOHN COOK 



THE REV. DR. JAMES RICHARDSON 



STRUGGLES FOR RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 301 

prerogative of importance and his opinion upon appointments seems to 
have been freely consulted. " I have tried both systems," he wrote 
privately in 1849. " In Jamaica there was no responsible government 
but I had not half the power I have here with my constitutional and 
changing Cabinet." No doubt this was somewhat due to his own per- 
sonality, to his kindly disposition, his cordial courtesy, his sympathetic 
insight into difificulties and a certain quality of instinctive statecraft 
which was always at the service of his Government whrether Liberal 
or Tory. 

PROGRESS IN THE ATLANTIC PROVINCES 

Meanwhile, events in the Maritime Provinces had been steadily 
developing toward the same end of responsible government. Lord 
John Russell's despatch regarding the tenure of office was regarded by 
the Liberal party in New Brunswick as practically granting their 
demands and was read by Sir John Harvey to the Legislature in 
1839 with an intimation of his willingness to put it in operation. But 
he was personally so popular, his administration so acceptable and 
the people were so naturally Conservative, that it was received with 
indifference and the Assembly actually passed a Resolution, by one 
vote, against the establishment of a responsible system. Later on, 
Sir William Colebrooke became Governor and, in the midst of Lord 
Metcalfe's bitter controversy with the Liberals in Canada, the Legis- 
lature still further signalized its position bypassing Resolutions thank- 
ing the Governor-General for his firm and vigorous stand against 
republicanism. But, by 1848, the influence of new developments in 
Canada had proved too strong for even New Brunswick Conserva- 
tism and its happy condition of having little real ground for complaint. 
A measure in favour of responsible government was therefore sup- 
ported by both parties and a Ministry formed to which Lemuel A. 
Wilmot and Charles Fisher, the two Liberal leaders, were duly 
appointed. This, however, was a coalition and it was not till 1854, 



302 STRUaOLES FOR RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 

after the holding of a general election, that the Liberals in this Prov- 
ince came into full power and formed a distinctly responsible Ministry. 

In Nova Scotia affairs were very different. There was no calm 
stream of indifferent progress toward an inevitable consummation, in 
its politics. The Governor, Sir Colin Campbell,* was a man of mili- 
tary mind with Metcalfe-like ideas of right and wrong and with his 
sense of duty to the Imperial Government developed at the e.xpense 
of any duty he might be supposed to owe the people. He was, in 
short, a Governor, and not the head of a distinct constitutional sys- 
tem based upon British precedent. As .such, he looked upon the 
Russell despatch of 1839 as a product of Home partisanship and as 
apart altogether from his duty to the Crown. The Assembly, under 
the influence of Howe's burning speech and sweeping invective, passed 
a strone Resolution of non-confidence in the Executive; which the 
Governor received with the intimation that his advisers were quite 
acceptable to him. 

The leaders in Nova Scotia at this time were brilliant men and 
fitted, many of them, to adorn a wider and greater field than destiny 
ever offered. Joseph Howe was, of course, first and foremost. 
None could touch him in eloquence, logic of argument, force of 
invective, or brilliancy of rhetoric, and it is a question if the Do- 
minion has ever produced his equal in tliese respects. James Boyle 
Uniacke was a strong man in many respects, while William Young, 
who lived to be knighted by the Queen, and to act for twenty-one 
years as Chief Justice of the Province, combined sound judgment 
with eloquence of speech. The equal of any of the Liberal leaders 
In political ability and sincerity, and the superior of all but Howe in 
oratorical power, was the Tory chief — James W. Johnston. He won 
elections in the teeth of his rival's more popular policy and alwa\'s 
held the respect and admiration of his own party. Howe's attacks 

* He was not the famous Lord Clyde, of Indian memory, as some Canadian writers bave stated. 



STJ^UCCL/IS FOR RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 303 

upon the Lieutenant-Governor at this time were ahnost intolerabk^. To 
say that they were scathing and slashing is to use a verj- mikl phrase. 
Their brilHancy was only equalled by a bitterness which was vitriolic in 
its intensity and which found expression not only in speech, but in news- 
paper articles, and in letters to the Colonial Secretary which are 
classics, as truly and fully, as anything ever penned by Junius. 

The inevitable result followed. Sir Colin Campbell was recalled 
and Lord Falkland, during the six years beginning in September, 
1840, ruled in his place. It was an uneasy crown which he placed on 
his head. The preliminary compromise of appointing three Liberal 
leaders — Howe, Uniacke and McNab — to seats in the Executive, 
without accepting their principles, was fore-doomed to failure and, 
after Howe and Johnston had managed to mix oil and water long 
enough to pass a much debated measure incorporating Halifax, the 
coalition naturally dissolved. 

Apart from the general and vague question of responsibility to 
the Assembly there were strong differences between the leaders on 
purely local issues. Howe favoured free common schools and one 
Provincial University. Johnston, like the Tories of all the Provinces 
in his day, favoured denominational schools and colleges with Pro- 
vincial grants — in brief the union of Church and State principle. 
In 1844 the disruption had come. Falkland accepted the resignation 
of the Liberals and then endeavoured to win over the masses from 
their party allegiance to Howe. It was a not unnatural thing to do 
at such a juncture, but it once more revived the implacable spirit from 
which his predecessor had suffered so greatly. Henceforth, Lord 
Falkland was, for the two years preceding his recall, able to fully 
comprehend the limitless possibilities of the English language and the 
force of Howe's keen and merciless invective. 

In 1846 he was relieved, and the ever useful, genial and popular 
Sir John Harvey was appointed to the position. It was not an easy 



304 STRUGGLES FOR RESPONSIBLE GOVERSMENT 

one, even for liim, to fill. If he i)ublic!y favoured responsible gov- 
ernment he would be breaking one of its cardinal principles by 
defying advisers who now held a majority in both Houses ; if he did not 
do so all the political bitterness of the Liberal leaders would be 
poured upon him as it had been upon Campbell and Falkland. He 
tried a compromise by inviting Howe and his associates to take 
places in the Council. But they refused and, finally, a tacit compro- 
mise was arrived at by which all parties agreed to await the coming 
elections. Late in 1847 tliese took place, and the Liberals were vic- 
torious by a fair majority. Johnston resigned and a Government was 
formed under new conditions and with the same understandingr which 
now prevailed in the Canadas — that the Governor would freely and 
fully accept the responsibility of his Ministers to the .Assembly 
instead of to himself. Howe was the most prominent member of the 
new Executive and with him were Lawrence O'Connor Doyle, James 
Boyle Uniacke, James McNab, Herbert Huntington, George R. 
Young and other representatives of Provincial Liberalism and of the 
prolonged struggle for responsible government. 



CHAPTER XV 
Political Reforms and General Prosrress 

GREAT reforms and changes mark the period from 1848 to 
1 866. Responsible government had networked as smoothly 
as its friends had hoped, and in time it developed conditions 
which created an absolute deadlock in the functions of government 
in the two Canadas. But it, none the less, opened the way for legis- 
lation of a useful character, broadened the minds of those public men 
who were able to grasp an enlarged though complicated situation and 
presented opportunities of achievement to the master-mind of Cana- 
dian history — John A. Macdonald. 

RACIAL AND RELIGIOUS SENTIMENT 

Although Lord Elgin had given his fullest confidence to the 
new Baldwin-Lafontaine Ministry, and was prepared, and able, to 
freely carry out the principles of responsible government, he and they 
alike had a most difficult task before them. Feeling was still very 
bitter among the French in Lower Canada against everything that 
savoured of English domination or Protestant influence ; the Liberal 
party of Upper Canada, or Canada West, was coming under the influ- 
ence of George Brown's towering and agressive personality and of his 
bitter opposition to what he believed to be the dangers of French and 
ecclesiastical domination in the public life of united Canada. And upon 
this rock of conflicting racial and religious sentiment the strong Govern- 
ment of the moment was ultimately to break up. It had also to face 
the slowly rising influence and organizing force of John A. Macdonald 
amongst the Conservatives, as well as the unifying party effect which 
the storms of the Rebellion Losses Bill was destined to have. 

17 305 



50f> POI.iriC.lL I^EI-ORMS AND CliXEU'.M. PROGRESS 

Ihis latter cxlniurdinary episode affected the Governor-General 
far more than it did his Ministry. There was still no conception in 
either party of the fact that a responsible Ministry meant one which 
was not only responsible for the distribution of places and patronage 
but also for legislation of every kind — whether controlled by its 
initiative or approved by the Queen's Representative upon its advice. 
People did not seem to understand that they had been asking for, and 
had now obtained, a condition of thincrs similar to that in Engfland 
where no party or section dreamt of attacking the Crown, but 
assumed as a matter of course that once a Ministry was formed it 
became responsible for the entire policy of the Governrhent. 

A CURIOUS SITUATION 

They still looked to the Governor-General to correct the mis- 
takes, or supposed mistakes, of his own Cabinet by either a veto or 
a reference to England ; and this popular feeling affords more excuse 
than perhaps any other fact for the earlier and conscientious opposi- 
tion of the Tories to the whole plan of responsible government. 
But if, as Draper and his associates believed in 1S41, the public 
neither understood nor were prepared for the carrying out of this 
policy what is to be said about the situation in 1S48, when a large 
section of the people of Montreal destroyed the Parliament Build- 
ings and a larger and more politically mixed mass of people in Upper 
Canada petitioned the Crown to remove Lord Elgin for not having 
refused the advice of his responsible Ministers and repudiated the 
voice of a large Parliamentary majority I It was a curious situation 
and the details are not the least interesting in Canada's complex 
story. 

During the preceding Draper administration the Government 
had brought in a measure and the House had supported it, giving a 
compensation of some ^40,000 to the loyal sufferers from the rebellion 
in Upper Canada. A demand for similar treatment had, of course, 



POI.rnCAI. REFORMS AND G/<:.\'KRAL PROGRESS 307 

been at once received from the French-Canadian representatives, but 
was opposed bythe Loyalists of Upper Canada on the ground that, 
practically, all the people of the Lower Province who had not actually 
participated in the insurrection had sympathized with it. In some 
measure, and especially in connection with the various stages of the 
movement which led up to the rebellion, this impression was prob- 
ably correct ; but so far as a large portion of the people were con- 
cerned during the actual risings it was incorrect. Still, the very 
assumption and its expression in Parliament, shows the racial and 
political tension which existed. The Draper Government, therefore, 
compromised matters for the moment by appointing a Commission 
which ultimately reported that while the claims in Lower Canada 
amounted to ^250,000, an indemnity of ,,^100,000 would probably 
cover the actual losses. The Government awarded ^10,000, and in 
doing so angered the French-Canadians by its utter disproportion to 
the amount of their claims and its own party by the admission of 
what they believed to be a dangerous principle. 

THE REBELLION LOSSES BILL 

During the two or three years of varied events which followed, 
and with a Government trembling in the balance, the matter was 
allowed to drop. But it was not forgotten and, as soon as the La- 
fontaine-Baldwin Ministry was installed in office, the agitation in 
French Canada began to revive. By the time the Legislature had 
met at Montreal, in 1S49, ^''"^ question had reached an issue which 
demanded settlement and was met, first by a series of Resolutions 
which Mr. Lafontaine moved and rapidly passed through the Assem- 
bly and then by a Bill based upon the principles thus accepted. The 
preamble to this measure for " the indemnification of parties in Lower 
Canada whose property was destroyed during the rebellion in the 
years 1837 and 1838," declared that a minute inquiry should be made 
regarding such losses and that proven claims for compensation should 



3o8 POUriCAL REFORMS AND GENERAL PROGRESS 

be paid and satisfied. It was provided tliat none who had been con- 
victed of treason during- the rebellion, or after bein"- arrested had 
admitted their guilt, or had been included amongst those transported 
to Bermuda, should be entitled to any indemnity. Five Commission- 
ers were to be appointed for the carrying out of these proposals and 
;^ioo,ooo was appropriated for the compensation of claims. 

The result of the introduction of this measure was a storm 
which threatened to shake the new system of government to its 
roots. The debates in Parliament were fierce beyond all precedent — 
even in the breezy days of Papineau's invective against British 
domination and tyranny. The Loyalists, the Tories, and even many 
moderate English-speaking Liberals throughout the country, as well 
as in the Legislature, denounced the measure as an attempt to reward 
rebellion, to indemnify treason, to approve sedition. It was a rebel 
Government patting rebellion on the back. It was a case of men 
who had participated in, or had approved of, the insurrection making 
an effort to express their sympathy by voting public money to their 
friends. It was the bribe offered by Baldwin for the present help 
and co-operation of Lafontaine and the French-Canadian members. 
These are strong words, but they only faintly indicate the utterances 
of the exasperated Loyalists led by Sir Allan McXab, Mr. Sherwood, 
the veteran Colonel Prince, and others who had proved their feelings 
in the field against the very rebellion which was thus being condoned. 

It is not difficult at this distance of time to sympathize with the 
bitterness of the Tory view while approving the general policy of the 
Government and deprecating what followed. To the former there 
was no justification whatever for the risings of 1S37-S. A rebel was 
a criminal who deserved only punishment. Loyalty to the Crown, 
which was the pivotal point of all their policy, was utterly incompati- 
ble with sympathy for sedition of any kind, especially for that which 
had prevailed in the two Canadas. And, it soon became evident from 



POLITICAL REFORMS AXD GENERAL PROGRESS 309 

the speeches of the Government leaders that there was no intention 
of discriminating in the payments between those who had risen and 
those who had been loyal, except in the extremely limited cases of 
conviction or banishment to Bermuda. The position of the Govern- 
ment had some elements of reason and strength in this regard. An 
Act of Amnesty had been proclaimed and, therefore, Mr. Baldwin 
said, it would be disrespectful to the Queen to inquire what part a 
man had taken during the preceding troubles. The Amnesty obliter- 
ated what had previously occurred. Mr. Merritt expressed the belief 
that all were now good and loyal subjects and that no delicate dis- 
tinctions regarding the past should be drawn. Mr. Drummond, with 
legal precision, stated that under an Amnesty Act the pardoned were 
in the same postion as they had been before the offence was com- 
mitted. More to the point was Mr. Hincks' statement that it would 
be impossible to permit any set of Commissioners to " arbitrarily 
decide that men were rebels who had never been convicted of hieh 
treason." 

It is not necessary to follow the stormy passage of the measure 
through the Legislature. On the 9th of March it passed the third 
and final reading in the Assembly by forty-seven to eighteen votes. 
In the Legislative Council the third reading was passed a week later 
by twenty to fourteen. Meanwhile, Tory petitions against it were 
pouring in from all parts of the country to the Governor-General and 
he now became the central figure of one of the fiercest demonstra- 
tions of feeling in Canadian history. His position was a very diffi- 
cult one. The Government had a large majority in both Houses 
and were only fifteen months from an appeal to the people in which 
they had obtained this majority. To veto the measure was impossible 
under those principles of responsible government which he had recog- 
nized and resolved to apply ; to refer it to the Home Government 
was simply a cowardly method of relieving his own shoulders from a 



310 POLITIC. IL REFORMS AND GENERAL PROGRESS 

responsibility which it was his duty to bear and of directing the wrath 
of whichever party lost, in the reference, against the Crown. To dis- 
solve Parliament was to precipitate an issue at the polls which, in the 
inllamed state of piiljlic opinion, could hardly be settled by a mere vote 
and, if it were so disposed of without actual violence would in all pro- 
bability only prolong the trouble without changing the result. He 
determined, therefore, with a patriotism which deserves the apprecia- 
tion of every Canadian in more sober days, to assume the full respon- 
sibility of action and of his assent to the Bill. " Whatever mischief 
ensues," he wrote to the Colonial Secretary, "may probably be 
repaired, if the worst comes to the worst, by the sacrifice of me." 

On the 25th of April, Lord Elgin drove to the Parliament House 
in Montreal and publicly assented to the measure in the Queen's 
name. The news ilew like wildfire through the city and the once 
popular Governor drove away from the House amidst a storm of 
insults and showers of missiles. A few hours passed, the excitement 
increased, the mob became larger and larger and finally uncontrollable. 
There were well-dressed men in its ranks and many known to be 
Tories amongst its leaders. No doubt also there was a large riff-raff 
element common to such occasions and, probably many French and 
Irish of the lower classes who cared nothing about the issue and only 
loved a riot. However, the mob invaded the Parliament Buildings 
and, iinally, in a moment of impulse, set them on fire. The damage 
done was irreparable. Not onl)- were the buildings destroyed, but 
all the public records of Upper and Lower Canada before the Union 
were burned. Not only was the reputation of Montreal affected but 
its position as the seat of Government was rendered a future impos- 
sibility. Not only was the Tory party disgraced by its participation 
in the riot but it soon became entirel\- responsible for it in the public 
miml and suffered corresponding injury. 1 He se.il was really set to 
the chances of Tory success against Lord Elgin, at this juncture, by 



POLITICAL KEI'ORMS .IXD GENERAL PROGRESS Jll 

the burning of the Buildings and by the further riot which followed 
the Governor-General's visit to the city a few day's later. 

Protests, meanwhile, poured into the Colonial Office at Lon- 
don against the Lord Elgin's action in accepting the Bill ; though still 
more numerous were the addresses showered upon him, personally, 
from every part of the country and expressing admiration for his 
magnanimity toward the rioters and his determination to uphold at 
all cost the principles of responsible government. He was ultimately 
maintained in his position and his policy approved by the Colonial 
Office. Parliament met no more at Montreal. During the next 
decade it sat alternately at Toronto and Quebec — until Bytown had 
been changed from a little lumbering village on the banks of the 
Ottawa, by the magic of the Queen's choice, into the capital of her 
Canadian Province. In i860, the Prince of Wales, during his visit 
to Canada, laid the corner-stone of the Parliament Buildings which 
were to do honour to the future Dominion and to mark the evolution 
of a village into the City of Ottawa. 

The year 1849 saw more than the riots at Montreal. Over Can- 
ada hung the clouds of intense commercial depression. To the 
Tories it seemed as if Great Britain had thrown them to the wolves 
of want by her sudden free-trade arrangements while at the same 
time she had sacrificed their loyalty upon a shrine of rebellion 
through the action of Lord Elgin. The result of their dissatisfac- 
tion, and of the still seething discontent among French-Canadians, 
was the birth of an Annexation movement ; the holding of a mass- 
meeting in Montreal to further that end ; the issue of a Manifesto 
which is of great historic interest because of its rash signature by 
such men of the future as Sir A. A. Dorion, Sir A. T. Gait, Sir D. 
L. Macpherson, Sir John Abbott, and the leading financial magnates 
of the city. It was a mere flash in the pan, but it none the less 
marked the miserable condition of the country at this period of 



312 POLITICAL REFORMS AND GENERAL PROGRESS 

commercial disaster and political riot. More important, because more 
lasting in its effects, was the formation of the British-American 
League, with a platform of federal union amongst the Provinces and 
of protection ir. tariff matters. It was largely the product of John 
A. Macdonald's skillful hand and of his leadership of a number of 
young men who were growing in personal ambition and in public 
attention. From this time until its final fruition the idea of federa- 
tion never disappeared entirely from the field of Canadian politics 
although its progress was often hampered and its position for years 
was more visionary than practical in appearance. 

THE PERIOD OF K.A.ILW.\V DEVELOPMENT 

Meanwhile the period of railway development was looming upon 
the horizon. The fertile brain of Lord Durham had suggested an 
inter-colonial railway to unite the Canadas with the Maritime Prov- 
inces; and the ready mind of Joseph Howe had early seen its 
desirability. Effort after effort was made between 1S50 and the time 
of Confederation to sret this line built. Lord Elorin did what he could 
to support the idea. Howe, in Nova Scotia, Edward Barron Chand- 
ler, in New Brunswick, and Francis Hincks, in Canada, did their best 
to further it. Negotiations were entered into with the Colonial Office, 
Howe went to England and stormed the ramparts of officialdom, 
meetings were held at Toronto and elsewhere of inter-Provincial 
delegates, but the project ultimately fell through. Upon its ruins 
came the European and North American Line in New Brunswick 
and the Grand Trunk in Canada ; and not till after Confederation 
was the original plan taken up and carried to completion. 

The history of the Grand Trunk is an extraordinary one. It 
was the product of a railway era, the record of which is marked by 
all the evils of rash investment, wild extravagance, huge profits, great 
losses and frequent ruin. Lesser lines sprang up like mushrooms in 
every direction ; the Legislature gave grants to all kinds of projectors 



POLITICAL REFORMS AND GENERAL PROGRESS 313 

and projects ; the Municipal Loan Fund was created and local bodies 
empowered to help railways — which they did to the tune of millions. 
In 1S52 the Grand Trunk Line, connecting the waters of Lake 
Huron with those of the St. Lawrence, was commenced and, in i860, 
the costly Victoria Bridge, in practical completion of its Canadian 
system, was opened by the Prince of Wales. The promoters of the 
railway included many members of the Government — John Ross, 
Francis Hincks, E. P. Tache, James Morris, Malcolm Cameron and 
R. E. Caron — the President of the Bank of Montreal and others, 
and the bonds were floated in England without much difficulty. Mr. 
Hincks was the leader in the movement and in the varied financial 
difficulties which followed he holds a prominent place. 

The evils of the situation which developed out of this and simi- 
lar enterprises are well known and reflected seriously for many years 
upon the credit of the Dominion. Confident in the appearance of so 
many representative Canadians in the Grand Trunk Prospectus money 
was freely invested by the English people under the impression that 
it was more or less a Government project. The arrangement by 
which the great firm of Peto, Brassey and Betts undertook its con- 
struction did not destroy an impression which seems to have been 
based upon nothing more than the appearance of certain names upon 
the Directorate and to have survived the repeated refusals of the 
Canadian Government to identify themselves with its later complica- 
tions. Twenty years after this period, however, the London Times 
(April 15, 1875) declared that ;i^30,ooo,ooo had been spent upon the 
Grand Trunk. Of this five-sixths was English money and only 
^10,000,000 of it was yielding any return. Eight million pounds ster- 
ling had gone into the Great Westen and only ^3,000,000 of that 
amount was paying any interest ; while the Canada Southern, the Mid- 
land, the Prescott and Ottawa, and other lines since amalgamated 
with the Grand Trunk and built mainly with British capital, were 



314 POLITICAL REFORMS AND GENERAL PROGRESS 

mere financial wreckage. The whole episode is, in fact, an unpleas- 
ant one. It hurt Canadian credit for many long years and the 
free expenditure of money at the time produced a political corruption 
which was even more injurious. 

Yet the promoters do not deserve blame. Mr. Hincks and his 
associates did their best to develop the country by the creation of 
necessary lines of communication and their policy undoubtedly had a 
ereat influence for cjood in that connection. That the contractors did 
not understand the conditions of construction in a new region ; that 
the railway managers were extravagant in expenses and salaries ; that 
political influences caused the building of competitive lines where 
there was no room for them ; that the waterways of Canada proved 
great rivals to the new railways ; were all matters hardly under 
the control of the politicians who pioneered the railway system of 
Canada. 

TWO GREAT QUKSTIONS SF.TTI.KD 

Meanwile, two great political questions had been settled — the 
Clergy Reserves in Upper Canada and the Seigneurial Tenure in the 
Lower Province. The settlement could not come while the Ministry 
of Lafontaine and Baldwin remained in power. Mr. Lafontaine, 
though a Liberal in politics and at one time a rebel sympathizer, had 
grown more moderate in his views as he grew older and more willing 
to see the best in everything rather than the worst. His reputation 
for pronounced common sense and for personal honour and integrity, 
as well as a knowledge of his respect for vested rights, had yearly 
grown stronger as the storms of 1849 passed from public memory. 
He favoured the retention of Seigneurial privileges in Lower Canada 
for reasons which it is not difficult to estimate and amongst which 
the desire to maintain the beneticial intUience of the l^rench Cana- 
dian gentry over a more or less ignorant peasantry was not the least. 
He had no sympathy with demagogues and he had proved his faith 



POLITICAL REFORMS AND GENERAL PROGRESS 315 

in the people upon important issues and his behef in moderate Liber- 
aHsm by the general policy of his Government. But he thought it 
was now time to rest for awhile. 

Mr. Baldwin's position was one of sympathy with the view of 
those who disapproved of the Reserves ; but he did not go to the 
extreme of the agitators who could see nothing except that question 
upon the horizon and nothing to do in Canada until it was disposed 
of to their liking. He was inclined to let the matter drift and to join 
his colleagues in legislation along other and practical lines. The 
Government had done a crreat deal for the Province during these 
years in useful work and actual achievement. They thoroughly 
reformed the Municipal system, which had been in a most chaotic 
condition ; passed new laws regarding elections, education and assess- 
ments ; established Provincial credit abroad ; obtained complete con- 
trol from the Imperial Government over the Provincial Post Office 
and established cheap and uniform rates of postage ; reformed and 
remodelled the Courts of Justice in both sections of the Province ; 
amended the exclusive and ecclesiastical charter of King's College 
and organized the University of Toronto in its place upon a non- 
sectarian basis ; abolished the principle of primogeniture in Upper 
Canada as applied to real estate ; and inaugurated much important 
railway legislation. This is a splendid record of work for three years 
of power. Then, in October 185 i, came the retirement of j\Ir. Lafon- 
taine, speedily followed by that of Mr. Baldwin. The former became 
Chief Justice of Lower Canada and was created a baronet in 1854; 
the latter retired into private life, refused a seat on the Bench and 
eventually accepted the honour of a C. B. from the Crown. 

The Liberal Ministry was re-organized under Mr. A. N. Morin 
from Canada East and Mr. F"rancis Hi neks from the West. The 
latter was one of the shrewdest men who have participated in the 
public life of Canada and naturally dominated the new Government 



3i6 POLITICAL REFORMS A.\D GENERAL PROGRESS 

in person and policy, although his chief colleague did not lack ability 
and certainly possessed wide popularity in Lower Canada. During 
the three following years the railway questions were more prominent 
than any other, although from time to time the Seigneurial Tenure 
and Clergy Reserve problems forced themselves upon political atten- 
tion. The two latter were now, however, to be disposed of through 
the personal influence and policy of Mr. John A. Macdonald. His 
rise during preceding years had been slow and steady. He had not 
pressed any burning question upon the Province or identified himself 
with any racial or religious issue ; but had quietly grown into the con- 
fidence of his party chiefs and into the practical leadership of his party. 
Tact and conciliation were the principal qualities marking this pro- 
gress. He seems to have seen clear])- that the Toryism of Robinson, 
Draper and McNab was not suited to the new conditions of the time ; 
that no successful party could be built upon such racial issues as the 
Rebellion Losses Bill, or upon such historical incidents as the Rebel- 
lion itself ; that Sir Allan McNab, brave old political warrior and 
chivalrous character as he was, could not possibly adapt himself to the 
new era of responsible and popular government ; that the Tory party, 
if it were to live, must cease to be an organized negation and must 
assimilate outside elements whilst developing a creative policy of 
moderate reform. 

He was greatly helped in this effort to evolve a new party by 
the policy of his vigorous and able opponent — Mr. George Drown. 
The latter is perhaps the most forcible and strenuous character in 
Canadian annals. Conscientious and sincere in the extreme, he was 
at the same time lacking in tact and in a wide view of public ques- 
tions. Profound convictions, whilst always commanding respect, are 
sometimes apt to verge upon intolerance ; and it was this imperious 
manner and dominating will which were at once the strong and the 
weak points in George Brown's great personality. .As a virile 



■ V '/ 




THK HON. EDWARD PALMER 
Chief Justice of Prince Edward Island 



THE HON. SIR WILLIAM YOUNG. KNT. 
Chief Justice of Nova Scotia, 1860-81 




THE HON. SIR JOHN CAMPBELL ALLEN 

KNT. 

Chief Justice of New Brunswick 



THE HON. GEORGE E. KING, LL.D. 

Justice of the Supreme Cuurl of Can.ida 



POLITICAL REFORMS AND GENERAL I'ROGRESS 317 

journalist and head of the Toronto Globe he was naturally a power in 
the Province ; as head of an uncompromising following in the Legisla- 
ture during many years he was also a power in politics. But his 
influence was weakened by the limitations of his point of view. To 
him Upper Canada was everything, the United Province nothing in 
comparison. 

Upper Canada was Protestant in religious belief and, therefore, 
Protestant interests must be dominant in the politics and legislation 
of the Province. Upper Canada was English a^^'.d, therefore, English 
interests as opposed to French must be uppermost in public adminis- 
tration. Under the Union Act the basis of representation had been 
arranged upon an estimated equality of population in the two Cana- 
das, although Lower Canada was then much more populous than the 
Upper Province. Now that the position had been reversed, repre- 
sentation by population became his policy, and the very natural French 
Canadian opposition to it was denounced as French and Catholic 
domination. His wing of the Liberal party became known as the 
" Clear Grit " party and, as the years passed on, it played steadily 
into the hands of the new Toryism which was becoming known as 
Conservatism, while, at the same time, it worked havoc in the French 
and Liberal alliance. By 1854, it had helped to disgust Baldwin and 
Lafontaine with politics, had aided in defeating their successors in 
office, and had driven many of the moderate Liberals of Upper 
Canada, or Baldwin Reformers as they were called, into the Con- 
servative ranks. 

The result of all these developments was the formation of a so- 
called coalition Government in September, 1854, with Sir Allan 
McNab, the Tory leader, as Premier, the Hon. A. N. Morin, the 
late Liberal leader in Lower Canada, as Attorney-General East, and 
the Hon. John A. Macdonald in the same position for the West. It 
is not hard to understand who was the real head of this Ministry. 



3i8 /'(>/. /77C.I/. Ri:i--i)RMS AXD GENERAL PkOiSKESS 

Like all Mr. Macdonald's coalitions, it was really an assimilation of 
lesser men into his own party for the purpose of carryin^r out his own 
views. The first indication of the change in party conditions was 
the secularization of the Clergy Reserves. The question had gone 
through various phases since Sir John Colbornc had stirred up such 
bitter Radical dissatisfaction by his endowment of forty-four Rector- 
ies in Upper Canada in 1836. By an Imperial Act passed in 1840, 
the new Government of the United Province was given power to deal 
with the proceeds of the sales which had already taken place, of land 
belonging to the Reserves, and to hand over two-thirds of the money 
to the Church of Eno-land and the other third to the Church of Scot- 
land in Canada. The unappropriated lands, amounting to 1,800,000 
acres, were also to be sold and, of the proceeds, one-half was given to 
the Churches of England and Scotland in the above proportions and 
the remaining half devoted to purposes of general public worship and 
religious education. This compromise had been welcomed at the 
time and Lord Sydenham, whose child it really was, had congratulated 
himself upon the settlement of a question which had greatly compli- 
cated the troubles of the time. 

But the problem would not down so long as there was an agitator 
in the Province who could make political capital out of a semi-religious 
issue, or out of the restless spirit of a democratic population which 
could not endure the expenditure of public moneys for any religious 
purpose whatever. For eight years following the revival of the ques- 
tion, in 1846, it took the form of an agitation for complete seculariza- 
tion and contributed to the downfall of Governments, the sub-division 
of parties, the intensifying of public strife. Finally, on May 9, 1S53, 
the Imperial Parliament passed an Act transferring the control of the 
matter to the Provincial Legislature and, on the 17th of October, 
1854, Mr. Macdonald moved a measure of general secularization. 
The Rectories already established were not to be interfered with and 



POLITICAL REFORMS AND GENERAL RROdA'ESS 319 

certain provisions were made for the widows and orphans of the 
clergy. The balance of the Reserves, as they should be sold, were 
to be divided amongst the townships in which they were situated upon 
a population basis and for purposes of education and local improve- 
ment. 

At the same time that this measure was passing through the 
Assembly a Bill had been introduced by Mr. L. T. Drummond 
abolishing the Seio-neurial Tenure in Lower Canada. No man in the 
Legislature was so well-fitted to deal with this important matter as 
the Attorney-General East. He was a politician who occupies a 
large and yet obscured place in Canadian history. His abilities were 
very great, his popularity in Lower Canada amongst both French and 
English most pronounced and in those days unusual, whilst his elo- 
quence was much more effective than that of many who occupy 
more prominent places in the popular mind. He had been eminent 
at the Bar and he lived to be eminent on the Bench. His speech 
upon the proposed abolition of an old-time system which, without 
being as useless or as injurious as its critics maintained, had yet fully 
outlived its value, was worthy of the occasion. The measure, which 
passed both Houses by good majorities, provided for the clearing 
away of all feudal privileges, rights and dues in Lower Canada, for 
freedom of contract in land and labour to Seigneur and cencttaire {or 
peasant), and for compensation to the former in the case of all vested 
rights acquired by custom and the lapse of time. 

A tribunal was appointed to settle questions which might arise 
out of the legislation and to distribute a Seigneurial indemnity which 
ultimately amounted to /"650,ooo. This was the end of two ques- 
tions which had destroyed the peace of politicians and the harmony of 
parties and increased the bitterness of controversies, already violent 
enough, during many years. The end was bound to come and the 
willingness of John A. Macdonald to meet the inevitable is creditable 



320 POLITICAL REFORMS AND GENERAL PROGRESS 

to his sagacity and hardly a reflection upon his consistency. He 
never affected to be a Tory of the Sherwood or Strachan type and 
could certainly have never achieved the great results of his career 
had he been so. They filled their inch in public life and national 
history; he lived in different times and adapted himself to the new 
conditions — as Disraeli was then betfinnii.e to do in Enirland with 
the Tory party of his early days. 

POLITICAL .'VND PERSONAL CHANGES 

The next few years were chiefly marked by the personal strug- 
gle for supremacy between Macdonald and Brown, with an ever- 
increasing accession of strength to the former ; and by complications 
risinof out of the racial and relisfious rivalries of the time. The 
McNab-Morin Government, which was formed in 1854 upon the ruins 
of the Hincks-Morin administration, lasted for two years and was then 
re-organized for a year into the Tache-Macdonald Ministry. From 
1855 Mr. George E. Cartier was a member of the Government. He 
had been steadily coming to the front in Lower Canada and had 
joined Mr. Macdonald in an alliance which was destined to last for a 
quarter of a century and to contribute greatly to the success of the 
Conservative leader's plans. Like Lafontaine he had been a rebel 
sympathizer in his youth and, like him, also, had mellowed into a 
moderate Conservative with strong British leanings. The only differ- 
ence was that the one refused to change his designation of Liberal, 
the other publicl)' accepted the new principles which the name of 
Conservative carried with it. Persevering and energetic in character, 
exhaustive and convincing, though not eloquent in speech ; with the 
qualities of a statesman rather than a mere politician ; Sir George 
Cartier became in time the chosen and powerful leader of his race. 

Personal changes In the decade between 1S54 and 1S64 form the 
chief incidents of its political histor\-. Sir Allan McNab retired in i S56 
from a party leadership which ill-health and new conditions had 



POLITICAL REFORMS AND GENERAL PROGRESS 321 

rendered impossible ; the Hon. L. T. Drummond disappeared from 
public life as a result of coming- into conflict with Mr. Macdonald's 
ambitions ; John Sandfield Macdonald rose into prominence as a some- 
what erratic Liberal leader in the Upper part of the Province and 
Antoine Aime Dorion replaced Lafontaine in the French leadership 
of the same party. The Governor-General, who had so greatly 
endeared himself to all classes of the Canadian people — Lord Elgin 
— retired in 1854 and, after rendering substantial service to his coun- 
try, died while ruling the great Empire of India for the Queen. His 
successor, for seven years, was Sir Edmund Walker Head and he, in 

1861, was replaced by Lord Monck. They were both careful and 
wise administrators who did much to smooth the still rugged edges 
of the new governmental system. 

In 1857, upon the local and party issufe which had been made 
out of the Queen's choice of Ottawa as the Provincial capital, the 
Government of Colonel Tache and John A. Macdonald was defeated 
and the Liberals, under George Brown and A. A. Dorion, had the 
pleasure of holding office for two days. Then followed George E. 
Cartier and John A. Macdonald in a Conservative Ministry which 
lasted amid varied shifts in policy and changes in personnel until 

1862, when the Liberals came in again under J. Sandfield Macdonald 
and L. V. Sicotte — for a couple of years, and with various changes 
under one of which A. A. Dorion succeeded Sicotte as the French 
Canadian leader in the Cabinet. Sir E. P. Tache and John A. 
Macdonald came into office in March 1864 and, in 1865, the former 
was succeeded as nominal Premier by Sir N. F. Belleau. 

Meanwhile, in November 1864, George Brown had coalesced 
with the Conservative Government in an attempt to remedy the 
constitutional deadlock which was threatening- the Province and to 
bring about a radical cure for this evil and a brighter future for the 
country by the uniting of all the Provinces of British America in a 

18 



3^2 POLiriCAl. NIJ'iiRMS AND GENERAL PROCh'ESS 

Federal btjiicl. With liini were Liberals such as Oliver Mowat, 
William McDougall and W. P. Howland. It had gradually become 
impossible to govern the Province under existing circumstances. 
There seemed to be no common bond of union amongst public men ; 
no common principle of action in the so-called parties. George 
Brown, with his Protestant and anti-French section, had hopelessly 
divided the Liberal party in Lower Canada ; while John Hillyard 
Cameron and the Orangemen formed a very uncertain portion of the 
Conservative party in Upper Canada. John A. Macdunald was an 
adept at winning the allegiance of his opponents and in making coa- 
litions which brought him temporary strength from time to time ; 
but it was not always easy to hold these recruits and new issues were 
apt to divert their loyalty at critical moments. The Baldwin Reform- 
ers, or moderate Liberals of the old school, did not always stand by 
Macdonald, while the Roman Catholic vote in Upper Canada was 
always uncertain and was controlled at times by John Sandfield Mac- 
donald — himself a Scotch Catholic and powerful with the old-time 
Loyalist Highlanders. In the Lower part of the Province, there was 
the greatest uncertainty and neither Morin, nor Dorion, nor Cartler 
was strong enough to dominate the situation — although Cartler did 
ultimately do so in time to carry his Province into Confederation. 

Some useful legislation — and some that was purely experimental 
— was effected even amidst this confusion. The volunteer force was 
organized for home defence in 1 85 5 as a result of the feeling aroused 
by the Crimean War and ultimately, after a Government had been 
beaten upon details, a fairly good working system was evolved. In 
1858 a limited policy of protection was established. In 1S4S, the 
clause in the Act of Union prohibiting the Legislature from using the 
French language was repealed. 

In the Maritime Provinces matters had progressed much more 
sedately and satisfactorily. The constitutional storms were largely 



POLlTfCAL REFORMS AMD GENERAL PROGRESS 323 

over and the people had very sensibly devoted themselves to more 
material things. Sir Edmund Head, Sir Arthur Hamilton Gordon, 
Hon. J. H. T. Manners-Sutton, in New Brunswick, and Sir John Har- 
vey, Sir J. G. Le Marchant, Lord Mulgrave (afterwards Marquess of 
Normanby), Sir R. G. Macdonell and Sir W. F. Williams, in Nova 
Scotia, proved themselves, upon the whole, to be very capable adminis- 
trators. Questions of railway construction were prominent in both 
Provinces for years and politics, never very violent in New Brunswick, 
were also comparatively quiet in the sister Province. Prohibition was 
a New Brunswick issue in the fifties, whilst the improvement of edu- 
cation was always a vital matter. The former principle first brought 
Samuel Leonard Tilley to the front as a Liberal leader and helped to 
make him Premier in 1861-65. Albert J. Smith, John M. Johnston, 
Peter Mitchell and R. D. Wilmot were other political leaders of the 
decade before Confederation. In Nova Scotia, Joseph Howe and 
William Young remained the chiefs of Liberalism with Adams G. 
Archibald as a later colleague ; while the Conservative party was con- 
trolled by the veteran, James W. Johnston and his successor, Charles 
Tupper. 

RISE OF SIR CHARLES TUPPER 

The rise of Dr. Tupper is perhaps the most important political 
event in the Provincial history of this period. To fearlessly face 
Joseph Howe upon the public platform and to defeat him in a Nova 
Scotian constituency, as Tupper did in the early fifties, was a most 
picturesque and striking event. But when it was followed up by the 
development of a strong personality which knew neither defeat, nor 
fatigue, nor rebuff, but swept through the Province like a whirlwind at 
every election — sometimes winning, sometimes losing, but always 
strong and resourceful — it was also a most important one. Dr. Tup- 
per became Premier in 1864 after serving four years in precedino- 
Cabinets. His chief act of Provincial legislation was the re-oro-anization 



324 POLITICAL REFORMS AND GENERAL PROGRESS 

of the school system upon the basis of free attendance and his most 
memorable public action during this period was his policy of join- 
ing in the Charlottetown Conference for the Union of the Maritime 
Provinces. 

Prince Edward Island had, meantime, developed a serious agita- 
tion regarding the locking up of its lands in the possession of British 
absentee capitalists. Keen discussion with the Home Government 
had taken place, a responsible system of administration had slowly 
evolved for its tiny population and with it, in iS6o, had come the 
appointment of an Imperial Commission to settle the question. One 
of the Commissioners represented the Imperial authorities, one the 
tenants and one was Mr. Joseph Howe. An adjustment of difficul- 
ties was made to the satisfaction of the Islanders but it was not accept- 
able to the London authorities and the matter was not really settled 
until the Island entered the Confederation in 1873. One useful thing 
was arranged, however, in the purchase by the Province of Lord Sel- 
kirk's estate of 62,000 acres which was generously given up by the 
heirs for some ^6,000 sterling. But the verge of a new and greater 
political development had now been reached — hastened, fortunately 
for the whole country, by external incidents of war and fiscal change. 




THE HON. SIR ALEXANDER T. GALT 
G.C.M.G., C.B. 



THE HON. SIR FRANCIS HINCKS, K.C.M.G. 





THE RIGHT HON. SIR JOHN ROSE 

BART., P.C, G.C.M.G. 

Finance Minister of Canada, 1867-69 



THE HON. SIR ETIENNE P. TACHE 
Premier of the Canadas before Confederation 



CHAPTER XVI 
Reciprocity and the United States Civil War 

THE question of reciprocity in trade, or tariffs, witli the United 
States has been an important one to the Canadian Provinces 
in all the later stages of their history. It was discussed, even 
during the days of the navigation laws and the British preferential 
tariff, at such periods as the fluctuating tendencies of trade showed 
some possible advantage in obtaining freer admission to the Ameri- 
can market or in the removal of the embargo upon American 
ships for the transport of products. But upon the whole the fiscal 
preference in the British market was sufficient to hold the interests 
of the Provinces largely in line with those of England. After the 
abolition of the Corn-Laws, however, with its opening of Canadian 
ports to foreign vessels and the sudden destruction of industry and credit 
by the repeal of the preferential duties, the British Provinces began 
to look around for other markets and to cultivate possibilities in the 
Republic. 

THE PUBLIC MIND TURNS TO THE STATES 

They arranged their tariffs so as to treat Great Britain and the 
United States upon a basis of fiscal equality and, though not yet 
decidedly protective in policy, began to indicate tendencies in that 
direction. From 1S49, through immediately following years, the 
great desire of the people in the Canadas was for some arrangement 
with the States by which their farm products could obtain free entry 
to its market ; while in the Maritime Provinces the pressing demand 
of the moment was for free fish in the same direction. Everywhere, 
also, there was a feeling of indignation, or regret, at the way in 

327 



328 RECIPROCITY AXD THE UNITED STATES CIVIL WAR 

which Great Britain had apparently disregarded their interests in her 
sudden adoption of a cosmopolitan trade principle and the bold 
initiation of a free import policy. 

Naturally, perhaps, people had turned to the United States in 
the financial and commercial distress which followed the unfortu- 
nately hasty action of the Mother-country ; and in the subsequent 
accession to ofifice of Lord Elgin they found a man peculiarly suited 
to the exigencies of the moment. In this, as in every other important 
matter he encountered, that brilliant nobleman seems to have risen 
to the occasion. In 1854, accompanied by IMr. Francis Hincks and 
other delegates from Canada and the Maritime Provinces, the Gov- 
ernor-General proceeded, in some state and under instructions from the 
British Government, to negotiate, if possible, a treaty of reciprocity. 

DIFFICULTIES IX THE WAV 

It was a difficult thinsf to do. There was no love lost be- 
tween the American Republic and its Mother-land at this time, 
though much the greater part of the hostility was felt by the former. 
The Oregon question, eight years before, had nearly resulted in con- 
flict, and the war-cry of "Fifty-four, Forty, or Fight"' — in reference 
to the latitude of the disputed boundary — liad rung through the 
United States and been received with intense enthusiasm. The San 
Juan dispute had just commenced and was also to see many threats 
of war before its final settlement. 

But Lord Elgin came to Washington and carried everything 
before him. The result may have been partly due to American 
indifference regarding the Provinces in one direction and to the 
belief, in another, that reciprocity would hasten the inevitable day of 
annexation ; but it was mainly due to Lord Elgin's personality and 
diplomacy. No doubt he played upon all the various feelings regard- 
ing the British Provinces, whether acquisitive, indifferent, or igno- 
rant. No doubt, also, that nothing in the way of personal hospitality 



RECIPROCITY AND THE UXITED STATES CIVIL WAR 329 

and the cultivation of friendships in securing the individual support 
of Senators was spared. Indeed it has been said more than once in 
Washington, and repeated elsewhere, that the famous Treaty was 
floated through the Senate upon a sea of champagne. . Whatever 
the causes, however, the astute Governor-General won the day, the 
measure passed the ordeal of Congress, and became law in the sum- 
mer of the same year. This remarkable piece of diplomatic work 
was of much apparent service to the Provinces. It provided for a 
free exchange of the products of the sea, the farm, the forest and the 
mine, and thus benefited Canadian farmers, lumbermen and miners. 
It admitted the United States to the freedom of the rich Atlantic 
fisheries and to the benefits of Canadian canal and river navigation. 
But it was unfortunately found impossible to obtain the admission of 
Maritime Province ships to the American coasting trade. Eventu- 
ally, also, trouble grew up as to the privileges which might be claimed 
for American manufactured goods under the general understanding, 
though not technical conditions, of the arrangement. On the other 
hand, the Americans soon diverted much of the transportation inter- 
ests of the Provinces to their own channels of trade. 

The details of the development in the Canadas which followed 
the acceptance of this Treaty are of great importance to a clear com- 
prehension of local conditions and future changes. In the first place, 
the years which followed covered a period of pronounced increase in 
trade between the two countries. In 1854, the imports of the British 
Provinces from the United States amounted to $7,725,000, with 
$1,790,000 of foreign products — presumably British goods brought via 
American railways and shipping. The exports to the Republic in 
that year were $4,856,000 of dutiable goods and $322,000 of goods 
paying no duty. In 1866, when the arrangement was abrogated, the 
British Provinces had imported from the States $22,380,000 of their 
domestic products and $2,448,000 of foreign products. At the same 



330 RECIPROCITY AND THE UNITED STATES CIVIL WAR 

time they had exported $43,029,000 of free goods and $5,499,000 of 
dutiable goods to the American market. As, however, the exports 
had been less by $10,000,000 in the preceding year there was no doubt 
a rush of produce across the line in 1866 to take advantage of the 
last days of the Treaty. Still, the increase had been very marked 
and, owing largely to extraneous conditions, had been exceedingly 
beneficial to the Canadian farmer. 

CONDITIONS UNDER RECIPROCITY 

The reasons were very simple and very plain. The Crimean 
War had first raised the price of wheat and other farm products, the 
American Civil War had maintained the higher rate and, when the 
Treaty was abrogated, conditions were not sufficiently settled for a 
number of years after the wholesale withdrawal of millions of men 
from farming and other interests of the Republic to allow of prices 
being lowered to any considerable extent. It is not probable that 
the Reciprocity arrangement affected this condition to any great 
extent either one way or the other. Canadian food and farm pro- 
ducts — wheat, oats, horses, cattle, sheep — were needed and would 
have been purchased with or without a Treaty. But appearances were 
certainly favourable to its reputation and many a farmer in Ontario 
to-day dates his father's prosperity and his own inheritance from 
the golden days of Reciprocity. In addition to the influence of war 
upon prices, the Provinces had also been in one of those periods of 
expansive development which cover all contemporary arrangements 
with a roseate flush of colour. An era of active construction in public 
works commenced at the same time as the Treaty was inaugurated. 
The Grand Trunk Railway was built to the extent of 1,100 miles at a 
cost to the local authorities of $6,000,000 and with an estimated expen- 
diture of $44,000,000 of British capital. The \^ictoria Bridge at Mon- 
treal, described by the American Consul at that city, in 1S60, as " the 
great work of the age " was erected at a cost of nearly $7,000,000, 



RECIPROCITY AND THE UNITED STATES CIVIL WAR 331 

Everywhere money was being poured out upon all kinds of public 
works and interests. The country was changing from a pioneer com- 
munity, with practically nothing but exports of timber in the market 
of the world, to an important commercial and financial country and 
feeling its way toward conditions which were to make a national union 
and a national structure necessary and possible. So far as the British 
Provinces were concerned, the net result of the Treaty was an appar- 
ent increase of trade — which would have come anyway ; greater 
facilities for the interchange of goods ; the building up of American 
railway and waterway and shipping interests at the expense of Canadian 
transportation routes ; the sapping of what little sentiment there had 
been in favour of inter-Provincial trade by the steadily growing ten- 
dency of the Provinces to send their products to, and buy their goods 
from, the nearest and most convenient market — that of the States to 
the south. During the first year of the Treaty, Canadian imports 
and exports by the St. Lawrence had decreased from $33,600,000 to 
$18,000,000 and continued to do so, greatly to the benefit of United 
States trade routes. The prosperous condition of the country was, 
in reality, not due to Reciprocity, but to the causes already outlined. 
None the less, however, did the Treaty draw the ties between the two 
countries very close and render it a matter for grave alarm to the fin- 
ancial, commercial and agricultural interests of the Provinces when 
the ill-feeling toward lingland, aroused by the Civil War, threatened 
its abrogation. 

The balance of benefit in the arrangement was really with the 
United States. Americans enjoyed the free navigation of the St. 
Lawrence and the use of the costly system of canals which was slowly 
developing through the expenditure of Provincial money. British- 
American fisheries were open to the fishermen of the Republic and 
Mr. E. H. Derby, in his Report to Congress upon the results of the 
Treaty, stated the number of American fishing vessels in Canadian 



332 RliCIPROCITY AND THE UNITED STATES CJIIL HAfi 

waters in 1862 as numbering 3,815. Six hundred sail during a single 
season had fished for mackerel in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, taking 
fish to the value of $4,500,000. Meantime, hardly a British smack 
found its way into American waters. The increase of trade was a 
boon to American interests before the Civil War as well as after- 
wards. During the twelve years of the Treaty $1 12,000,000 worth of. 
breadstuffs were sent to the Provinces — largely between 1854 and 
i860 — and $88,000,000 of manufactured goods. As early as Januarj' 
1856, a Special Committee of the New York Chamber of Commerce 
reported that : " The result cannot fail to be greatly advantageous to 
both countries. While the trade of Canada by the St. Lawrence 
with Eng-land has been reduced, that with the United States has 
been augmented ; our canals and railroads have been enriched by the 
transportation of their surplus productions ; our neighbours have pur- 
chased largely in our markets of domestic manufactures ; and our 
vessels have had the advantagfe of an increased foreign trade." 

Two years later the same body of commercial and financial mag- 
nates declared by Resolution that the arrangement was "one of the 
most important commercial treaties ever made by our Government." 
On Febuary 10, 1862 the Chicago Board of Trade declared that 
" the Treaty has been of great value to the producing interests of the 
whole (American) North-West." On March 8, 1864. the Boston 
Board of Trade stated that its continuance " is demanded by the 
interests of American commerce ; " while on December gth of the 
same year, the Detroit Board of Trade declared that the agricultural 
and commercial interests of the North-West were almost unanimous 
in favour of its renewal and that, " in whatever way we view the 
'J'reaty it has been of vast importance to us as well as to the Colo- 
nies." So much for business opinions of the arrangement in the 
United States as apart from political sentiment and easily-aroused 
international animosities. According to American figures also — the 



RECfPROCITY AND THE UNITED STATES CIVIL WAR 333 

Treasury Department Bureau of Statistics- — there was a distinct 
balance of trade in favour of the Repubhc during the period to the 
extent of $54,000,000. The amount of exports to the Provinces was 
given at $350,576,000 and the imports from them at $295,766,000. 

WHY THE TREATY WAS ABROGATED 

Meanwhile, events were evolving which were to destroy the 
Treaty and help to effect a constitutional revolution in the Provinces. 
The chief nominal cause of its abrogation in 1866 was an attempt by 
Canada to protect its industries in a very moderate and tentative 
fashion. The financial crisis of 1857 in the United States had con- 
siderably affected Canadian interests for a time and proved an inter- 
regnum in the general prosperity of the period. Banks had failed, 
investments been curtailed, Provincial revenues greatly lessened, and 
a deficit created which, in 185S, amounted to $2,000,000. Some- 
thing had therefore to be done with the tariff. Mr. A. T. Gait, who 
held the position in the Cartier-Macdonald Government which cor- 
responded with the later one of Finance Minister, undertook to 
re-arrange the duties so as to increase the revenue and, incidentally, to 
afford some slight protection to home industries. He explained pub- 
licly, that "the policy of the Government in re-adjusting the tariff 
has been, in the first place, to obtain sufificient revenue for the public 
wants ; and secondly, to do so in such a manner as shall most fairly 
distribute the burden upon the different classes of the community." 
And, then, he went on to say that the Government would be satisfied 
"if it found that the increased duties absolutely required to meet its 
engagements should incidentally benefit and encourage the produc- 
tion in this country." 

This was the first practical development of protection in Canada 
and it was none the less protection because of being termed " inci- 
dental." As an illustration of the policy it may be pointed out tliat 
the duty on boots and shoes and harness goods was raised from 12^ 



334 RECIPROCITY AND THE UNITED STATES CIVIL WAR 

per cent, in 1855, ^o -o per cent, in 1857 and 25 per cent, in 1859. 
On cotton, iron, sillc and woollen manufactures the duties were 
advanced from 12^ per cent, in 1S55, '^o '5 per cent, in 1857 and 20 
percent, in 1859. Speaking at Hamilton, in 1861, Mr. John A. Mac- 
donald declared that " it is a matter for consolation that the tariff has 
been so adapted as, incidentally, to encourage manufacturing indus- 
tries here." The immediate result of this policy was an equalization 
of revenue and expenditure and the raising of a controversy with 
certain British interests which objected to Colonial tariffs upon their 
goods and were not yet educated up to the full and inevitable effect 
of abrogating the mutual preferential duties in favour of British and 
Colonial products which had existed prior to 1S46. The manufactur- 
ers of Sheffield and other places wanted their own hands freed, but 
were apparently not quite ready to accord the same fiscal freedom to 
Canadian interests. 

Mr. Gait maintained a strong and spirited correspondence with 
the Colonial Office in connection with these protests as did one of 
his successors, the Hon. John Rose, and the ultimate result was a 
complete recognition of the Colonial right to impose duties for either 
revenue or protective purposes upon British and foreign goods. 
Very unfairly the Gait tariff was also used by politicians in the United 
States who were hostile to England, or Canada, or both, as a lever to 
force the abrogation of the Reciprocity Treaty. Although millions 
of dollars worth of manufactures were being sent every year into the 
Provinces and although such products were deliberately excluded frcmi 
the purview of the orginal Treaty, yet it was claimed that this 
re-adjusted tariff of the Canadas was, in some unspecified way, an 
infringement of British obligations under the international arrange- 
ment. This contention was maintained until the very end and despite 
such statements as that of James \V. Taylor, in an elaborate Report 
to the United States Secretary of the Treasury in March, 1S60, that 




THE HON. SIR WILLIAM RALPH MEREDITH 

KNT. 

Chief Justice of the Ontario Court of Common Pleas 



HIS EMINENCE, ELZEAR ALEXANDRB 

CARDINAL TASCHEREAU 




THE HON. HONORE MERCIER, Q.C. SIR WILLIAM C. VAN HORNE, K.C.M.O. 

Prime Minister of Quebec, IS.S7-9I 



RECrPROC/TV AND THE UNITED STATES ClVn. WAR 337 

" Our manufacturers demand that Canada shall restore the scale of 
duties existing when the Reciprocity Treaty was ratified, on penalty 
of its abrogation. When it is considered that the duties imposed by 
the American tariff of 1857 are fully 25 per cent, higher than the 
corresponding rates of the Canadian tariff, the demand borders on 
arrogance." Nor does the claim seem to have been affected even by 
the similar declaration of the New York Chamber of Commerce, on 
December 21, 1864, that: "The additional duties on our manufac- 
tured imports into Canada are still moderate and are for revenue 
purposes only ; and that, with our own present high tariff, we are the 
last persons who have a right to complain of any similar procedure ; 
and that, notwithstanding, our manufactures find a large outlet in that 
direction." Five years before this, in 1859, when Lord Napier, then 
British Ambassador at Washington, submitted proposals for " the 
confirmation and expansion of free commercial relations between 
the United States and the British Provinces " they had been de- 
clined. 

Yet a Committee of the American Congress made this conten- 
tion the string upon which to hang a somewhat bitter indictment 
against Canada for illiberality and unfairness. To it Mr. Gait 
replied * by quoting the perfect freedom of the St. Lawrence from 
the Great Lakes to the ocean ; the absence of light-house dues ; the 
repeal of tonnage dues on Lake St. Peter ; the abolition of tolls on all 
vessels, whether American or Canadian ; the opening of extensive dis- 
tricts, east and west, free from all customs dues whatever. He pointed 
out that Canada had a perfect right to arrange its tariffs upon goods 
expressly excluded from the Treaty, in such a manner as was best suited 
to its own interests. He declared that, on the other hand, the United 
States had not acted fairly in many matters. They had imposed 
heavy consular fees on proof of origin which became tantamount to 

• Canadian Sessional Papers, No. 23, vol. v,, i86?. 



338 RECIPROCITY AND THE UNITED STATES CIVIL WAR 

a duty antl wliich were not removed until after two years of protest 
and negotiation. They subjected to duty flour ground in Canada 
fn m American wheat which was free by treaty. They imposed a 
tax upon timber cut in Canada out of American saw-logs, although 
Canadian saw-logs were free. Canada admitted the registration of 
foreign vessels without charge ; the United States did not. Canada 
admitted American craft free of all toll or charge through her system 
of canals to the sea ; but no Canadian boat was allowed, even on 
payment of toll, to enter an American canal — despite the express 
stipulation in the Treaty itself that "the Government of the United 
States further engages to secure to the subjects of Her Britannic 
Majesty the use of the several State canals on terms of equality with 
the inhabitants of the United States." Foreign goods were con- 
stantly bought in the American market and brought into Canada, 
paying duty only upon the original foreign invoice ; but American 
law forbade anything of the kind being done in Canada. 

Such was the general Canadian position regarding the Treaty 
and the nominal cause of its abrogation. It is not probable that the 
American complaints concerning the Gait Tariff would have been suffi- 
ciently strong, or have had enough strength behind them, to procure 
or even seriously to endanger its existence, had there not arisen the 
intense anti-British feeling which marked the progress of the Trent 
Affair and had been first stirred up by the escape of the Alabama 
and the supposed sympathy of Great Britain and Canada with the 
South. When this spirit developed the abrogation became practi- 
cally inevitable, although the business interests of the country were 
opposed to such an action and various Chambers of Commerce con- 
tinued to press the desirability of retaining or renewing the Treat}-. 
One of the notable efforts made in this direction was the holding of 
an international Reciprocity Convention at Detroit. It was opened 
on July II, 1865, and many who were then, or afterwards became, 



kECIPROClTY AND THE UNITED STATES CIVIL IVAA' 339 

well-known in business or politics in the British Provinces, were 
present — notably Joseph Howe, William McMaster, Adam Brown, 
Billa Flint, Isaac Buchanan, Elijah Leonard, J. L. Beaudry, L. H. 
Holton, Sir Hugh Allan, E. H. King, Charles J. Brydges, Peter 
Redpath, James Skead, Charles Fisher, A. E. Botsford, George 
Coles, Erastus Wiman and John McMurrich. 

American delegates were in attendance from New York, Phila- 
delphia, Baltimore, St. Louis, Boston and from almost every impor- 
tant town or district north of Washington. A Resolution was finally 
passed asking for fresh negotiations and a new Treaty. The most 
striking event of the gathering was the wonderfully eloquent speech 
of Joseph Howe. It was logical in argument, forceful in presenting 
the British and Canadian case, and effective in its personal impressive- 
ness beyond any other Canadian comparison. Nothing, however, could 
overcome the feeling which prevailed amongst the American dele- 
gates, and was strengthened by pressure from Washington, that any 
strong approval of the Treaty, or even of its eventual renewal, would 
retard the supposed Canadian movement toward annexation. It was 
believed and freely pointed out that a period of fiscal coercion would 
greatly assist this tendency. 

When the notice of abrogation was first given in 1865 it came 
with something of a shock to the Canadian people. They had grown 
so accustomed to the absence of tariff walls in all matters connected 
with the products of the farm, the forest, the mines and the fisheries, 
that their coming reconstruction was looked upon with actual dismay 
and fear. Business and transportation interests had become so assimi- 
lated with those of the United States that a sudden and serious 
change of this sort threatened to precipitate a financial panic. Talk 
of annexation as the only way out of a cul-de-sac actually did become 
rampant in some quarters and further increased the fear in other 
directions as to what the end of it all would be. Interests built up 



34° RECrPROCITY AND Til F. UNITED STATES CIVIL WAR 

as a result of twelve years of close trade relations between the two 
countries trembled on the verge of ruin. The Government appealed 
to the Mother-country to try and avert what they declared the people 
would regard as "a great calamity." John A. Macdonald, George E. 
Cartier, George Brown and A. T. Gait were sent post haste to Eng- 
land to point out that the whole trade of Canada would have to be 
turned into new channels and much disaster follow if something could 
not be done to renew the arrangement. Of course the Imperial Gov- 
ernment did what it could and, in 1866, A. T. Gait and W. P. 
Howland from Canada, W. A. Henry from Nova Scotia, and A. J. 
Smith from New Brunswick, met Sir Frederick Bruce, the British 
Minister at Washington. Through him they tried to negotiate a 
renewal. It was useless, however, and in the succeeding year the 
Treaty ceased to exist. At the same time the Fenian raids took 
place and added the danger and the fact of actual aggression, to 
Canadian fears of commercial disaster and restriction. 

The whole trouble arose out of the American Civil War and the 
irremovable impression of the Northern States that English sympa- 
thy was with their antagonists. There is no doubt that a rhajority of 
the British aristocracy sympathized with the South ; that Palmerston 
and Gladstone and other leaders had expressed feelings of this kind 
in language as plain as it was unwise ; that the great Reviews and 
many of the newspapers of England believed the war to be one of 
conquest and not of national unity. But the Queen is now known to 
have not only approved the cause of the North but to have held 
back her Government from that formal recognition of the Southern 
States which would have made France and England their inevitable 
allies ; leaders of such opposite schools of thought as Disraeli and 
Bright warmly espoused the side of the North ; the men of Lanca- 
shire, dependent upon the receipt of Southern cotton for their manu- 
factures, preferred to starve and actually did starve rather than ask 



REC/PA'OC/rr AXD THE UXITRD STATES CIVIL WAR 341 

their Government to interfere in the contest ; the Government even- 
tually refused the overtures of Napoleon III. to intervene, despite 
the close relations of the time with France and the close personal 
friendship between the Queen and the Emperor and Empress. Can- 
ada, on her side, contributed thousands of volunteers to the Northern 
armies and never showed any official sympathy with the South, what- 
ever individuals may have felt. 

But all this was nothing in comparison with the accidental 
escape of the Alabama and the storm which found expression after 
the seizure of Mason and Slidell in a British ship and the necessity of 
surrendering them aeain to the Power which had been insulted. The 
first result of the feeling thus aroused was the abrogation of the Reci- 
procity Treaty, the second was the tacit encouragement given to the 
Fenian movement upon Canada, the third was the pressing of the 
Alabama claims to the point of war, the fourth was the Treaty of 
Washington in 1871. 



19 



CHAPTER XVIT 
The Confederation of the Provinces 

THE union of all the Provinces of British America did not come 
in a moment nor did it come, as superficial observers some- 
times say, because political complications had arisen in the 
Canadas. Despite this belief and the assertion of Mr. Goldwin 
Smith that the parent of Canadian Confederation was constitutional 
deadlock it appears evident to the close student of historj- that the 
political issue was only one of many under-currents trending in the 
same direction and all combining to make federation inevitable, as 
well as desirable. The idea, as practically considered in 1S64 and 
achieved in 1867, was not a new one in itself nor was it the posses- 
sion of any single mind in the annals of British America. 

EARLY .\DVOCATES OF THE IDEA 

Aside from proposals by Francis Nicholson, Governor Hutchin- 
son, Benjamin Franklin and William Smith for the application of the 
scheme to all the American Colonies in days before the Revolution, its 
first formal suggestion in the British America of the present time was 
by Richard J. Uniacke, in the Legislative Assembly of Nova Scotia, 
in 1800. This was followed in 1S14 by the probably quite indepen- 
dent and original advocacy of the Hon. Jonathan Sewell, in his well 
known correspondence with H.R. H. the Duke of Kent. Mr. Sewell, 
afterwards Chief Justice of Quebec and during many years a promin- 
ent figure in the politics of his Province, proposed a federal union of 
all the Provinces with one Assembly of thirty members. The Queen's 
father, who had always taken a deep interest in British America, 
besides serving at both Halifax and Quebec in command of the 
342 



THE CONFEDERATION OF THE PROVrNCES 7^\'S 

troops, went carefully into the matter and suggested as a preliminary 
the legislative union of the Canadas in one division and of the 
Maritime Provinces in another, with a Federal Government at 
Quebec, for the whole. Ten years later Chief Justice Sevvell, Chief 
Justice Sir John Beverley Robinson of Upper Canada, and Bishop 
Strachan, presented a pamphlet scheme for a general union to the 
Imperial authorities. 

THE IDEA FINDS MANY SUPTORTERS 

So far, the idea had been essentially a Tory one and it was 
treated with contumely by French Canadians as well as by Radical 
leaders. But about this time it was supported in a tentative and 
theoretical way by Robert Gourlay and W. L. Mackenzie and, in 
1S37-8, was favoured in more or less academic resolutions by both the 
British House of Commons and the Upper Canada Legislature. 
Then came the recommendation of Lord Durham and the union of 
the Canadas. In 1S49 the Canadian Legislative Council declared in 
favour of federation, while the troubles at Montreal and elsewhere in 
connection with Rebellion losses legislation, British free-trade 
legislation, and the Annexation movement of the same year, induced 
the British North American League to include Confederation as a 
first and foremost plank in its platform. The advocates of the policy 
in this popular body, it is worthy of notice, were largely enthusiastic 
young Tories under the leadership of the now rising politician — the 
Hon. John A. Macdonald. In 185 1 the latter attended a mass 
meeting in Montreal and supported a resolution in favour of the 
principle while, about the same time, the Hon. Henry Sherwood, an 
old-time Loyalist and Tory leader, published a strongly favourable 
pamphlet. 

During the next few years the Hon. James W. Johnston, 
Conservative leader in Nova Scotia, Mr. Pierce S. Hamilton, an able 
publicist and writer in the same Province, and the Hon. J. H. Gray 



344 THE CO XFEDE RATION OF THE PROVINCES 

in New Brunswick, all supported the idea in speeches or writings. Mr. 
Johnston and the Hon. A. G. Archibald urged the proposal officially 
in 1857 and about the same time there appeared its first popular 
advocacy by a Trench-Canadian in the form of a series of letters by 
Mr. J. C. Tache in Lc dnn-yicr du Canada. During 1858 the Hon. 
A. T. Gait, in various speeches, and the Hon. T. D'Arcy McGee in 
the Legislative Assembly of the Canadas, favoured the policy while 
it received for the first time an official Canadian impriviatin- by the 
Governor-General, Sir Edmund W. Head, announcing at the closing 
of the Session that he intended to communicate upon the subject with 
the Imperial Government and the Governments of the other Colonies 
and that he was " desirous of inviting them to discuss with us the 
principles on which a bond of a federal character uniting the Provinces 
of British North America may, perhaps, hereafter be practicable." 

In the same year his Government sent Messrs. Cartier, Gait and 
John Ross to England for the purpose of inviting the Home Gov- 
ernment to appoint Delegates from all the Provinces to discuss a 
federal union. Naturally, and properly, the Imperial authorities did 
not see their way to assume such a responsibility and preferred leav- 
ing the seed to grow in its own soil until a stage of fruition had been 
reached in which the various branches of a single stem might draw 
together of their own volition. 

About the time of this mission to Encrland, Mr. Alexander 
Morris — long afterwards Lieutenant-Governor and Chief Justice of 
Manitoba in succession — delivered a somewhat famous lecture in 
Montreal and published it under the title of Nirfa Britannia. In it 
he foretold a future fusion of races in British America, a union of all 
the Provinces and territories from ocean to ocean and a railway to the 
Pacific. During the same year, and in the Montreal Gazette, there 
appeared a strong letter in favour of union written by James Ander- 
son and significant for its reference to John A. Macdonald as "the 




THE HON. SIR J. W. TRUTCH, K.C.M.G. 
LieuleDanl-Governor of British Columbia, 1871-76 



THE HON. GEORGE A. WALKEM 

Premier of British Columbia, 1874-76 




THE HON. THEODORE DAVIE 
Premier of British Columbia, 1892-95 



THE HON. JOHN ROBSON 
Premier o( British Columbia, 1889-92 



THE CONFEDERATION OF THE PROVINCES 347 

primary mind of the Canadian Legislative Assembly " and as long- since 
prepared for carrying out this policy. Upon the failure of the Cana- 
dian Delegation already referred to, the Maritime Provinces sent 
another one and it was assured that no obstacles would be placed in 
the way of union — Mr. Labouchere, the Colonial Secretary and 
afterwards Lord Taunton, going so far as to say that he thought a 
union amonsfst the Maritime Provinces themselves would be exceed- 
ingly beneficial. The question now became more and more widely 
discussed. Tariff and railway matters brought the Provinces from 
time to time before the attention of portions of the British public 
while the idea itself was slowly but surely sifting into and permeating 
the minds of people in the Provinces. 

In 1859 a gathering of Bristol merchants urged the importance 
of the proposed Inter-Colonial Railway as a help towards union and, 
a little later, in one of the eddying currents of political opinion dur- 
ing that period of conflict, a Liberal Convention at Toronto passed a 
resolution deprecating federal union. In the following year the Hali- 
fax Reporte7- supported the principle strenuously and one of its edi- 
torials on the subject is said to have received the approval of the 
Prince of Wales when he was starting from Halifax upon his tour of 
the Provinces. Dr. Charles Tupper, about the same time, lectured 
in its favour at St. John and in the succeeding year Mr. John A. Mac- 
donald declared in an address to the electors of Kingston, that " the 
Government will not relax its exertions to effect a Confederation of 
the British North American Provinces." About the same time, also, 
Mr. Joseph Howe moved a Resolution in the Nova Scotian Assembly 
asking the Lieutenant-Governor to ascertain the views of the Colonial 
Secretary, the Governor-General and the other Lieutenant-Governors 
upon the question. From the Duke of Newcastle, Colonial Secre- 
tary, came an intimation in reply that if the Provinces took any 
action in the matter the result would be w^eighed by Her Majesty's 



348 THE COXFEDERATIOX OF THE I-ROIISCES 

Govcrnm(;iit " with no other feeling than an anxiety to discern and 
promote any course most conducive to the prosperity, the strength 
and the harmony" of the British communities in North America. 

Finally, in 1864, Mr. George Brown reported from, and on behalf 
of, a Committee of the Canadian Legislature in favour of Confeder- 
ation. Just at this moment Resolutions appointing Delegates to meet 
at Charlottetown for the purpose of discussing a union of the Mari- 
time Provinces had been passed in the Legislature of Nova Scotia, 
mainly through the initiative of Dr. Tupper, in that of New Bruns- 
wick through the exertions of Mr. S. L. Tillev and in the Legislature 
of Prince Edward Island through the influence of ]\Ir. AV. H. Pope. 
The Conference met and received a deputation from the Province of 
Canada composed of John A. Macdonald, George Brown. George E. 
Cartier, A. T. Gait, T. D'Arcy McGee, Alexander Campbell and H. 
L. Langevin. The result of the representations made by the Cana- 
dians was a decision to enlarge the scope and policy of the Conven- 
tion so to cover all the Provinces and to adjourn with a view of 
meeting in a fuller and more authoritative gathering for a discussion 
of the greater federal union. 

CAUSES OF CONFEDER.-VTIOX 

How the movement had come to reach this advanced stage is 
an interesting story. As already stated there was no single cause 
sufficiently strong to have forced it to a head. There was, how- 
ever, the concurrent pressure of a number of influences, which, 
in concrete form, brought about the result. First and foremost was 
the growing hostility of the United States as exhibited in the Trent 
Affair, embodied in newspaper articles against England, and impressed 
upon the Provinces by the threatened abrogation of the Reciprocity 
Treaty. Then, there existed a feeling in many far-seeing minds that 
there was, perhaps, a deeper danger in the existing development of 
the separated Provinces toward the United States in a commercial 



THE CONFEDERATfON OF THE PROVINCES 349 

and financial sense, than there would be in any condition of actual 
and permanent antagonism upon the part of the Republic. If mat- 
ters went on as they were going and the Reciprocity Treaty should 
b-j renewed it seemed apparent to these thinkers that the ties between 
the Provinces and individual States to the south would become so 
strong as to draw the former still further from each other and make 
a future united British country practically impossible. 

The Colonial Office had also commenced to take an interest in 
the matter and the rejection of a Militia Bill in the Canadian Legis- 
lature from purely partisan motives, at a critical moment in the 
Trent AfTair when England was pouring troops by thousands into 
British America, had aroused attention to the weakness of the Prov- 
inces from a defensive standpoint and to the greater weakness arising 
out of politics which were truly Provincial in their pettiness and yet 
injurious in their strength of feeling. To obtain organization in a 
military sense it was seen that organization in a constitutional sense 
must first be created and, from the earlier "sixties" onward, the 
Imperial Government consistently but quietly utilized its influence 
to forward the idea of unity and federation. Lord Monck, who 
became Governor-General in 1861, used all his ability and the silent, 
continuous pressure of Vice-regal approval to advance the principle ; 
Lieutenant-Governors were appointed with distinct, though private, 
instructions alone the same line and at least one of them was removed 
for expressions unfavourable to the policy. This was an important 
aid to the inception of Confederation which is often overlooked. 

Equally important, but not of supreme importance in the evolu- 
tion of the movement, was the dead-lock in Government which arose 
af Ottawa. The conflicting elements in this trouble were almost 
innumerable though a few stand out with greater prominence than 
others. The racial feeling was still strong in Lower Canada and 
found frequent expression in the Legislature, in the choice of political 



350 THE CONFEDERATION OF THE PROVINCES 

leaders, in the almost bewildering difficulties of Cabinet forma- 
tion. The absence of a Prime Minister in the full constitutional 
sense of the word and the existence of two leaders in the Cabinet 
with distinct territorial and racial jurisdiction {the Attorneys-General 
of Canada East and West) was a source of endless and inevitable 
confusion. The slow but steady disruption of the Liberal party by 
the formation of Georofe Brown's anti-French and anti-Catholic 
organization and the vigorous, slashing style of the Globe under his 
control were elements which naturally added to the complexities of 
the situation. It took time also for Mr. Macdonald's new party to 
evolve and the French-Canadians were slow to leave their racial unity 
of thought and action and to divide in a party sense — :even under the 
goad of George Brown's continued onslaughts in connection with the 
question of representation by population. They had so long and 
harmoniously called themselves Radicals, or Liberals, or Reformers ; 
they had so bitterly fought the Tories, or Conservatives, in the first 
forty years of the century ; they had so strongly regarded the latter 
as identified with a hated form of British racial supremacy ; that it 
was difficult even for the most tactful of statesmen to change their 
party allegiance. The change was bound to be a slow one and, in 
the meantime, the deadlock came when no party in the nominally 
united Provinces could form or hold a Government. 

Other and minor influences there were in the development 
toward union. The politicians of the Provinces were becoming better 
known to one another and their frequent conferences upon railway 
and other matters insensibly taught them the common interests 
which should exist, and really did exist, amongst their peoples. With 
the increase of population and the growth of railways there came also 
some measure of increased intercourse and trade — though these were 
greatly checked by the close relation with southern neighbours. A 
certain element amongst the people — many of them French-Canadians 



THE CONFEDERATION OF THE PROVINCES 351 

— dreamed of a distant future of complete independence and there 
were men in all the Provinces favourable to Confederation as a 
step in that direction. Others wanted annexation and thought this 
policy would make them strong enough to, some day, throw off " the 
bonds of British connection " and to then throw themselves into the 
arms of the Republic. Loyalists of the olden type — and they were 
still numerous — felt that the only hope of protecting their indepen- 
dence from the United States was by a policy of uniting British 
resources in the creation of a strong British state. Thus, all kinds of 
cross currents of vague opinion werebeinggradually moulded into shape 
and prepared for supporting the general principles of unity. During 
the succeeding years, 1865-6, the abrogation of Reciprocity and the 
Fenian raids were to change greatly the course of minor streams of 
thought and unite public sentiment in favour of Confederation as the 
only safeguard against an American policy of either coercion or con- 
ciliation. Though in the first instance one of many original causes 
of Confederation this feeling became in the end the predominant 
popular reason for approval of a policy which by 1865 was practically 
consummated. 

A MEMOR.A.I3LE CONFERENCE 

The Conference of statesmen which met at Quebec on October 
10, 1864, was a memorable gathering in Canadian history. The 
" Fathers of Confederation " who then met with the object of laying 
the constitutional foundations of a new British nation were men of 
great . ability in many cases, of much local influence in all cases. 
Some of them would have graced the matured counsels of an Empire 
instead of the infant stages of national construction. Canada was 
well represented. Its master-mind, in the person of John A. Mac- 
donald, was then in all the vigour of his keen, constructive intellect 
and a subtle, supple comprehension of the quick-changing fancies of 
the public and its political leaders. Marred as his ability was by the 



352 t'lm CONFEDERATION OF THE PROVINCES 

weakness which at times detached iiim from serious matters and 
plunged his genial personality in a self-indulgence which would have 
ruined any lesser man, there could be no doubt of his foremost place 
in any gathering of contemporaries. Sir Etienne Paschal Tache, the 
cultured, patriotic French-Canadian gentleman who once declared that 
the last gun fired in North America in defence of British connection 
would be fired by one of his race, was there, and with unanimous 
approval took the place of Chairman. 

George Brown, the energetic, forceful personality, the honest 
lover of his country, the bitter antagonist of French or Catholic 
supremacy in its affairs, was present with a sincere desire to advance 
that cause of union which, for some )'ears, he had been most earnestly 
advocating. George Etienne Cartier, the admirer and friend and 
colleague of "John A." was there as representative of the growing 
Conservative party of French Canada. Alexander Tilloch Gait, 
independent in view, sturdy in character, honest in purpose, was pres- 
ent as representative and guardian of the Protestant interests of the 
Eastern Townships of Lower Canada. William IMcDougall, a singu- 
larly able man with a disappointing subsequent career; Thomas 
D'Arcy McGee, a brilliant Irishman of patriotic and eloquent person- 
ality and with a melancholy death not very far away in the fields of 
fate ; Oliver Mowat, a rising Liberal leader, Alexander Campbell and 
James Cockburn, two prominent Conservative politicians, Hector 
Louis Langevin and Jean Charles Chapais, two French-Canadians of 
acknowledged ability ; completed the list of Delegates from the 
Canadas. 

From Nova Scotia came the strenuous, aggressive, forceful per- 
sonality of Charles Tupper, able and eloquent, and destined to be the 
life-long friend and ultimate successor of Sir John Macdonald. With 
him were well-known men in the field of local politics — W. A. Henry, 
a future Judge of the Supreme Court of Canada, Jonathan McCully 



THE CONFEDERATION OF THE PROVINCES 353 

and R. B. Dickey, members of its future Senate, Adams George 
Archibald, a Lieutenant-Governor of two of its coming- Provinces. 
From New Brunswiclc came the suave, pleasant and popular Samuel 
Leonard Tilley, an able politician and a good financier of the future. 
With him were John Vl. Johnston, Charles Fisher, Peter Mitchell, 
Edward Barron Chandler, W. H. Steeves and John Hamilton Gray 
— only one of whom, in the person of Peter Mitchell, can be said to 
have obtained a national reputation ; yet all of whom were men of 
marked ability in different ways and differing degrees. Prince Edward 
Island was represented by Colonel Gray, Edward Palmer, afterwards 
its Chief Justice, W. H. Pope, George Coles, Edward Whelan, T. H. 
Haviland and A. A. Macdonald — the two last living to preside over 
their native Province as Lieutenant-Governors. Newfoundland, 
though it shared the policy of its sister Island in ultimately refusino- 
for a time to enter Confederation, sent Delegates to the Conference 
in the persons of F. B. T. Carter and Ambrose Shea — each of whom 
in later days won his knighthood from the Crown. 

Such was the gathering which, after prolonged discussion, finally 
passed the seventy-two Resolutions which, practically constituted the 
British North America Act of 1867 — so far as the terms and condi- 
tions of that measure were concerned. There was, however, a lono- 
struggle before success came and the causes and sentiments, already 
referred to, had been given the opportunity of chrystalizino- into a 
general acceptance of the document. The Union Resolutions were 
adopted in the Canadian Assembly, in 1865, by ninety-one to thirty- 
three votes and in the Council by eighty-five to forty-five votes — 
fifty-four from Upper Canada and thirty-seven from Lower Canada 
constituting the favourable vote in the Assembly. After two general 
elections in New Brunswick and a passing change of Government the 
Resolutions were approved in July, 1S66, by good majorities. In 
Nova Scotia, as in Canada, the Resolutions were adopted by the 



354 THE CONFEDERATION OF THE FROVINCES 

Legislature — on motion of the Hon. Dr. Tupper in the Assembly 
and by a vote of thirteen to nineteen — without a general election. 

In this latter Province grrave troubles were to ensue as a result of 
Joseph Howe's opposition to Confederation. He had been excluded 
from the Conferences for reasons technically correct, but which seem 
in the judgment of later times to have been politically unwise. The 
decision to oppose the measure does not appear to have been a sud- 
den one, but to have developed out of reasons beyond his control 
and, perhaps, chiefly because of the impossibility of two such Caesars 
as Tupper and Howe ruling in the same party organization at the 
same time. There were, of course, other men of prominence in the 
Provinces who had not been members of the Quebec Conference. 
Sir N. F. Belleau, John Hillyard Cameron, Malcolm Cameron, P. J. 
O. Chauveau, Antoine Aime Dorion, INI. H. Foley, Luther Hamilton 
Holton, J. Sandfield Macdonald, John Rose and Francis Hincks, were 
none of them present — some, perhaps, because of known opposition 
to the scheme ; Francis Hincks, because of absence from the scene 
of his many political labours as Governor of British Guiana. But 
all of them put together were not as important at this juncture as 
Joseph Howe. While his constructive statesmanship does not seem 
to have been remarkable, the effect of his eloquence would have been 
very great and, could it have been brought to bear in all the Provinces 
at a later period, must have hastened the growth of a Canadian senti- 
ment which proved rather slow in maturing. 

COMPLETING THE COXSTITUTION 

In December, iS66, Delegates from the Provinces of Canada, 
Nova Scotia and New Brunswick met in London to make the final 
preparations and to see the measure through the Imperial Parliament. 
Mr. John A. Macdonald was appointed Chairman of the Conference 
and, of those who had been at Quebec, Messrs. McDougall, Tilley, 
Tupper, Cartier, Gait, McCully, Fisher, Johnston, Mitchell, Archibald, 



1 




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THE HON. PIERRE J. O. CHANVEAU 
Q.C., LL.D. 

Prime Minister of Quebec, 1867-73 



THE HON. C. E. B. DE BOUCHERVILLE 

C.M.G. 
Prime Minister of Quebec. 1N74-7C, l^■91-92 




THE HON. SIR NARCISSE F. BELLEAU 

K. C.M.G. 

Lieutcnaat-Governor of Quebec. 1867-73 



THE HON. THOMAS WHITE. M.P. 



THE CONFEDERATION OF THE PROVINCES 357 

Langevin and Henry were also present, as were three new men — J. 
W. Ritchie, W. P. Howland and R. D. Wilmot. The final details 
were settled and, on the 28th of March, 1867, the Resolutions, after 
passing through the Imperial Parliament as the British North Amer- 
ica Act, received the Queen's assent and became the constitution of 
the new Dominion* of Canada on the ensuing ist of July. 

Under the terms of this Federal constitution, or by virtue of 
British precedents and practices afterwards read into it, the following 
system was established, or has in its working details been since 
evolved : 

1. A Governor-General representing the Sovereign, appointed 
by the Crown for five years and holding, practically, the same place in 
the Canadian constitution as the Queen does in that of Great Britain. 

2. A Cabinet composed of members of the Queen's Privy Coun- 
cil for Canada, who may be chosen from either branch of Parliament 
and whose chief is termed the Premier. He has usually been leader 
of the House of Commons as well as the recognized leader of his 
party. The Cabinet must command the support or confidence of a 
majority in the Commons. The Ministers may vary in number as 
well as the Departments of Government — the administration of which 
usually falls to members of the Cabinet. 

3. A Senate, whose members are appointed for life by the Gov- 
ernor-General-in-Council. It is composed of seventy-eight members 
who must possess property qualifications, be thirty years of age and 
British subjects. They receive $1,000 for a Session of thirty days, 
with travelling expenses. 

4. A House of Commons composed of members elected for a 
maximum period of five years by popular vote — from 1898 under the 
franchise of the different Provinces. There is no property qualification, 

* It is to be regretted, in tight of later Imperialistic developments, that Sir John Macdonald's proposal in the first 
draft of the Act to make the title, " Kingdom of Canada," should have been opposed by Lord Stanley (i6lh Earl of 
Derby) who was then the Foreign Secretary, as being likely to offend the susceptibilities of the United Stales. 



358 THE CONFEDERATION OF THE PROVINCES 

but members must be at least twenty-one years of age, British subjects, 
and not disqualified by law. There are 213 members and the Ses- 
sional allowance is $1,000. 

6. The Provincial Governments are composed of the Lieutenant- 
Governor, appointed for a term of five years by the Governor-General 
in-Council (which phrase usually means the Dominion Cabinet) ; the 
Ministry, composed of Departmental officers selected from either 
House of the Legislature and often havino- additional members with- 
out office or emolument ; a Legrislative Council,* in Nova Scotia and 
Quebec, composed of members appointed by the Provincial Govern- 
ment, or Lieutenant-Governor-in-Council, and in Prince Edward 
Island elected by the people ; and a Legislative Assembly elected for 
four years by popular vote. In all the Provinces manhood suffrage, 
limited by residence and citizenship, is the law except in Prince 
Edward Island. 

Under the terms of Union the Dominion Parliament was to have 
control of the general affairs of the country, including all matters not 
specifically delegated to the Provincial authorities — the reverse of the 
United States system and of the Australian constitution lately (1900) 
completed. The chief subjects of Federal control were the regulation 
of trade and commerce ; the postal system ; the public debt, public 
property and borrowing of money on the credit of the Dominion ; 
the militia and all matters connected with the local defence of the 
country ; navigation, shipping, quarantine and the coast and inland 
fisheries ; currency, coinage, banks, weights and measures, bills and 
notes, bankruptcy and insolvency ; copj-right, and patents of inven- 
tions and discovery ; Indians, naturalization and aliens ; marriage and 
divorce ; customs and excise duties ; public works, canals, railways 
and penitentiaries ; criminal law and procedure. 

* Ontario decided to dispense wiih a Council altogeihcr, British Columbia at a later date did the same and Manitoba 
and New Brunswick have since abolished theirs. 



THE COMFEDERATIOS OF THE PROVINCES 359 

The Provincial Legislatures were to have control of certain spe- 
cified subjects, including direct taxation ; the borrowing of money on 
Provincial credit ; the management and sale of local public lands and 
of the wood and timber thereon ; the establishment, maintenance and 
managent of prisons and reformatories, hospitals, asylums and chari- 
table institutions generally ; licences to saloons, taverns, shops and 
auctioneers ; certain specified public works within the Province ; the 
administration of justice under certain jurisdictions and Provincial 
Courts ; together with education and municipal institutions. 

Under the terms of the Act Ontario, or Upper Canada, has 92 
representatives in the House of Commons, Quebec, or Lower Can- 
ada, 65, Nova Scotia 20, New Brunswick 14. As the other Provinces 
came into the Union Prince Edward Island was given 5 members, 
Manitoba 7, British Columbia 6 and the North-West Territories 
4. The basis, according to population, is that of Quebec with its 65 
members and a re-arrangement takes place after each decennial Census. 
The average population to each representative is 22,688. In this way 
was settled the point for which George Brown had so strenuously strug- 
gled and the influence of P'rench Canada — if united from a racial point 
of view — was left to depend upon its comparative population and not 
upon the arbitrary equality of representation created by the Act of 
Union in 1841. Fortunately for the new Dominion a division along 
racial lines has only occasionally taken place and never in the form of 
fractious hostility to which politicians of the earlier period and the 
lesser Union were too well accustomed. 



CHAPTKR XVITT 

Completing Confederation 

THE bringing together of the old and historic Provinces o( 
Upper and Lower Canada, Xova Scotia and Xew Brunswick 
in a federal bond was a difficult and important task and 
enousfh in itself to constitute the life-work of a statesman. To 
complete this union by the acquisition of the great Northwest and 
of prairies and mountains stretching in millions of square miles to 
the far Pacific, was a w^ork which, in national possibilities, was 
even greater. It must be remembered, in estimating the importance 
of any one man in connection with what mav be termed the making 
of Canada, that it was the good fortune and the statecraft of Sir 
lohn Macdonald which enabled him not only to have the largest 
popular place and the chief constructive share in the confederation 
of the older Provinces, but also, as Prime Minister, to preside over the 
admission of Manitoba, the formation of the North-West Territories 
and the admission of British Columbia and Prince Edward Island. 

THE STATECR.A.FT OI' SIR JOHN M ACIit >X.\1.I i 

In addition to this, it was his privilege to watch over and 
guide the early operation of the new constitution and to influence 
the later creation of a sincere and powerful national sentiment — 
without which Confederation was simply a structure built on shifting 
sand. None of these stages in e.vpansion or progress was. however, 
of easy attainment. Each had to be beaten oil the anvil of the 
fates with fire and hard labour. 

It could not have been without a shade of sympathetic regret 
that the thoughtful observer, toward the end of the sixties, should 
360 



COMPLETING CONFEDERATION S^I 

have witnessed the approaching fall of the Hudson's Bay Company 
as a great land power and Its probable subsidence into the hum- 
drum existence of a mere trading corporation under constitutional 
control. Its history had been a great and romantic one, and though 
marred by occasional acts of violence, or folly, had upon the whole 
been of service to the Empire's expansion and commerce and a con- 
siderable addition to its store of great traditions. It was in 1862 
that the first overt steps had been taken by the Province of Canada 
to acquire the North-West; it was on the 9th of March 1869 that 
the final arrano-ements were concluded between the two Governments 

O 

and the Company. Between this date and the actual transfer of the 
territory, however, there intervened a period of trouble and per- 
plexity, of insurrection and murder. 

THE RIEL REBELLION OF 1870 

The history of the Riel Rebellion of 1870 is a regrettable page 
in Canadian annals and seems to indicate a lack of imagination on 
the part of the Canadian Government in dealing with a sensitive and 
ignorant population of whom little was known by any one in 
authority, except it were the Hudson's Bay Company people. The 
latter do not seem to have shown any active interest in matters once 
the sale was actually consummated and their ^'300,000 assured. 
Imagination is, in statesmanship, an all-essential, though not always 
recognized, factor and it was not usually lacking in the policy of 
Sir John Macdonald. But on this occasion no one appears to have 
followed the sound principle of putting themselves in other peoples' 
places and imagining for a brief period what the feelings of the 
Metis, or Half-breeds of the Red River, would be upon hearing of 
the proposed transfer of their territory. 

They were uneducated, could not speak English, knew nothing 

of constitutional government or even what it meant, were isolated in 

the extreme, did not understand the relations held by the Company, 
20 



362 COMPLETING CONI-'EDERATION 

the British Government and the Canadian authorities toward each 
other, and were, therefore, the easy victims of deception, the facile 
instruments of any vain or corrupt agitator who might rise to the 
surface of affairs at a critical juncture. Judgment long after an event, 
when based upon new conditions and changed ideas, is always easy 
and unfair, but in this case it would really seem as if the ten or twelve 
thousand people, scattered throughout the region now known as 
Manitoba, should have received some official notification and personal 
explanation of the policy of union with Canada, its actual causes and 
probable effects. They had never asked to be included in the Domin- 
ion and were quite content under the open and paternal government 
of the Company. They now heard rumors of impending change and 
all the flying gossip of a scattered and suspicious population ; while 
they saw with their own eyes the corps of surveyors and road-makers 
who so unwisely preceded the authorities and even the actual trans- 
fe''. It is little wonder, therefore, that though the Selkirk set- 
tlers and most of the English-speaking people held aloof in the assu- 
rance that nothing very serious could happen to them under the new 
regime, the more primitive and less placid Half-breeds shifted in rest- 
less alarm and presently caught fire under the unscrupulous appeals 
of Louis Riel. 

CHARACTER OF LOUIS RIEL 

Like many men born to lead in civil strife, or to effect objects of 
a socialistic or anarchistic nature, Riel had a vein of madness in his 
mind. It was not, in any true sense of the word, insanity, nor does there 
appear to have ever been serious grounds for supposing him incapable 
of controlline his own actions. It was the madness of intense egotism 
and vanity, developed by other characteristics into a cool, calculating, 
unscrupulous ambition. The son of a white father and a Half-breed 
mother he had been educated in Montreal for the Roman Catholic 
priesthood but returned to Fort Garry without really taking Orders. 



COMPLETING CONFEDERATION 363 

His early surroundings had given him physical vigour, his education 
in Montreal had given him fair scholarship, his French and Indian 
blood had given him a curious mixture of qualities in which oratorical 
facility and indifference to the shedding of blood were prominent. In 
many respects, therefore, he was fitted to be a leader of the people at 
the Red River, and into this position he at once leapt. Moderation 
at this juncture would have made him a great and useful figure in the 
hearts and history of his countrymen and have enabled him to pre- 
pare them peacefully for a union of which he must have clearly under- 
stood the nature. And he might afterwards have taken a high poli- 
tical place in the Province, and, perhaps, in the Dominion. 

Encouraged, however, by a vague knowledge of Papineau's day 
of power in French Canada ; believing that Fort Garry was too far 
away and the Canadian people too indifferent to risk serious interfer- 
ence ; hoping from the opinions of American residents at Fort Garry 
that, if there vvas trouble, the United States would intervene ; inspired 
by a passion for notoriety which some men mistake for honest ambi- 
tion ; he drew away from the paths of moderation and determined to 
found a new republic in America. In the earlier stages of the move- 
ment he had little opposition from the pure white population and 
considerable sympathy from the American element in it. The Eng- 
lish-speaking settlers explained to Lieutenant-Colonel Stoughton 
Dennis, who came to them as chief of the newly-appointed Govern- 
or's staff, that they had not asked for this new Dominion Govern- 
ment, had not been consulted in the transfer of their territory, and 
did not propose to risk either their homes, or their lives, or their old- 
time friendships in opposing Riel and his Half-breed followers. If 
there was to be a conflict — in which the Indians would probably take 
part — let the Dominion, they said, establish amongst them that Gov- 
ernment which it had decided upon without their opinion being asked 
and they would obey the laws and be good subjects. Until the new 



364 COMPLETING CONFEDERATION 

system was established, however, they would take no risks. To this 
not altogether unreasonable attitude there were exceptions, increas- 
ing as time went on and as the position of Riel became more violent 
and aggressive. These exceptions were at first largely made up of 
native Canadians under the leadership of Dr. (afterwards Sir) John 
Christian Schultz, a pioneer in the trade and development of the 
country. 

It had been announced that on December i, 1869, the new terri- 
tory would be formally transferred to Canada and, in the meantime, 
the Hon. William McDougall, who had taken a prominent part in the 
earlier negotiations at London and the Parliamentary discussions at 
Ottawa, was appointed a sort of Provisional Governor of an unorgan- 
ized territory. He was sent up in the late autumn to arrange the 
new constitutional system and to take over the administration of the 
region from the Hudson's Bay Company. There was, of course, no 
railway connection at that time with the West except by way of Uni- 
ted States territory and the first overt act of rebellion occurred on 
October 21st when, under the inspiring eloquence of Riel and the 
influence of his vigorous misrepresentations, an armed Half-breed 
force took possession of the highway leading from the International 
border to Fort Garry and over which the new Governor would have 
to pass. He was told he could not come beyond the frontier and, 
finally, when he attempted to make the journey was forced by the 
rebels to leave British territory and to retire to Pembina, in the State 
of Dakota. 

Riel now took further active measures. On November 3rd he 
led a force into Fort Garry, dispossessed the Hudson's Bay Company 
and laughed at their protests ; issued a manifesto stating that a popu- 
lar Convention would be called to settle the government of the coun- 
try ; published a rebel paper named the New Nation and got 
practically all the military stores available ; formed, early in January, 



2 
2 

n 

B 
O 

r 




COMPLETING CONFEDF.RATrON 367 

1870, a Provisional Government of which he was President, a clever 
Irishman named O'Donoghue, Secretary-Treasurer, and Ambrose 
Lepine, the best military head amongst the rebels of the moment, 
Adjutant-General. Meanwhile, Mr. McDougall made the serious 
mistake of believing that the intended le^al transfer of the terri- 
tory had actually taken place on December ist and of issuing what 
purported to be a Royal Proclamation dealing with the existing situa- 
tion. When it was found that the transfer had not really occurred 
this document only served to intensify the complication and to make 
McDougall's position untenable as well as intolerable. There was 
nothing for him to do but return home. Then, Dr. Schultz formed a 
body of half-armed Canadians to defy the rebel Government and 
after a brave resistance was over-powered and imprisoned at Fort 
Garry with all his followers. The details of his privations there, the 
imminent risk of death as a warning to others in the Settlement 
which he is known to have been in, his escape through the help of a 
sick wife and by the aid of a smuggled file, his climb over high walls 
with an injured leg, and his journey through great drifts of snow and 
in a bewildering storm to a place of partial safety, read like part of 
some romance of another acje. Still more interesting- was his subse- 
quent journey on foot and snow-shoe over seven thousand miles of 
solitude, snow and frozen rivers to Duluth, in the United States, where 
the tall, gaunt and emaciated figure of the weary and starving Cana- 
dian commanded general sympathy. After a brief rest he journeyed 
by train to Ontario and there speedily aroused the public to a sense 
of the real state of affairs and the necessity of strong and active 
interference if the great country of the West was to be held by the 
Dominion. 

But a good many things happened before, or during, this period. 
Donald A. Smith arrived at Fort Garry as a special Commissioner of the 
Dominion Government and the future Lord Strathcona and Mount 



368 COMPLETING CONFEDERATION 

Royal exercised in his negotiations a high degree of tact and concilia- 
tion. Eventually, he persuaded Riel to call his promised Convention 
to consider the future condition of the country. It met on January 25, 
1870, and passed a Bill of Rights formulating the demands of the 
Half-breeds, which Mr. Smith undertook to submit to the Ottawa 
Government. At the same time he asked for the appointment of 
Delegates to accompany him to the Dominion capital. This was 
duly done and all might have possibly gone well had not the Scott 
murder taken place soon after. At Kildonan, not far from Fort 
Garry, a meeting of loyalists was being held and a son of John 
Sutherland — afterwards a Senator of Canada — was shot dead by one 
of Riel's spies as the latter was trying to escape from the gathering. 
On their way home from the meeting some of the other loyalists were 
captured and, amongst them, a young Canadian named Thomas Scott. 
He was a man of excellent character and an Oransfeman and this 
latter fact, no doubt, had something to do in further inflaming the 
ignorant minds of the Half-breeds. Despite the protests of Mr. Smith 
and the intercession of some of the French priests, he was shot by order 
of Riel on March 4th, after a court-martial, which was the veriest 
travesty of justice. 

WARLIKE 1"RK1'.\ RATIONS 

Of course, nothing could now be done by conciliation, although 
Bishop Tache returned from Rome soon afterwards and exercised his 
wide influence in preventing any more ebulitions of similar violence. 
The murder of Scott aroused Ontario, where Schultz had just arrived, 
and all the Governments concerned — British, Canadian and Provin- 
cial — saw that effective and immediate steps must be taken to sup- 
press the rising. An expeditionary force was at once arranged under 
command of Colonel (afterwards Field Marshal, Viscount) Wolseley, 
who was then at the head of some regular troops in Ontario. It was 
composed of the ist Battalion of the 60th Rifles. 350 strong, with 



COMPLETING CONFEDERATION 369 

twenty men of the Royal Artillery and four seven-pounder guns, 
twenty men of the Royal Engineers and suitable Hospital and Service 
corps — making in all 400 regular troops. Two Battalions of Militia 
from Ontario and Quebec under Lieutenant-Colonels S. P. Jarvis and 
L. A. Casault, making 700 more men, were readily obtained as volun- 
teers. In May, 1S70, this force left Toronto to pass over more 
than a thousand miles of wilderness and broken water-stretches and 
to endure much of hardship and severe labour. At Sault Ste Marie, 
owingf to American res^ulations and the refusal to allow British armed 
troops upon the soil of the United States, the expedition had to leave 
its boats and carry all supplies and effects three miles around the 
rapids on the Canadian side — where, at the end of the century, is to 
be found a canal which eclipses that of the Americans. 

On August 24th, amid rain and gloom, the expedition made its way 
up the Red River and found itself nearing the scene of rebellion. Filled 
with thoughts of conflict and hope of brilliant success, the men were 
greatly disappointed, as soldiers, to find that Riel had fled like his earlier 
predecessors, Papineau and Mackenzie, and had left them merely the 
skin of a squeezed orange. From every other standpoint, however, 
than that of the ambitious soldier, or hopeful volunteer, the result 
was for the best and, with Colonel Wolseley's march into Fort Garry 
the insurrection closed without leaving any seriously bitter memories 
behind save those surrounding the sad death of young Scott. Mr. 
Donald A. Smith was called upon by the Military Commander to 
assume control of civil matters until the new Lieutenant-Governor 
could arrive and the constitution be formally inaugurated along the 
line of Mr. Howe's instructions to Governor McDougall many months 
before.* 

This policy — which might have averted the insurrection had it 
been properly placed before all the people of the Settlement at 

♦Letter from the Secretary of State at Ottawa, dated 7th December, 1869, but not made public until January 20, 1870. 



370 COMPLETING CONFEDERATION 

an earlier period — included the declaration that civil and religious 
liberties and the privileges of the whole population would be sacredly 
preserved ; that properties, rights and equities, as enjoyed under the 
Company's rule, would be maintained ; that a liberal system in the 
granting of titles to land now occupied by settlers would be pursued ; 
that all classes of the residents would be fully and fairly represented 
in the Government ; that municipal self-government would be at once 
established and the country ruled by a constitution based upon British 
laws and precedents and practices. On July 15th, 1870, the Province 
was duly constituted by Royal and Parliamentary enactment with Mr. 
(afterwards Sir) Adams G. Archibald as its first Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor.* An Executive Council of not less than five persons was to 
be appointed, with a Legislative Council of seven members which 
was to be increased to twelve after four years, and a Legislative 
Assembly of twenty-four members, elected to represent certain elec- 
toral districts as constituted by the Lieutenant-Governor. The dura- 
tion of the Legislature and its functions were to be controlled by the 
same provisions as applied In the British North America Act to the 
other Provinces. Either the French or English language could be 
used In debates and official records. It may be added that the Legis- 
lative Council was abolished in 1S76 and that the number of members 
in the Assembly was afterwards raised to forty. 

The first organized Ministry in tlie infant Province was consti- 
tuted on September 16, 1S70, with the Hon. M. A. Girard as 
Premier. Of the characters In the strife which preceded this constitu- 
tional commencement Louis Riel vanished from sight for a few years of 
restless life in the States to the south ; Colonel Wolseley, after coquet- 
ting for a brief moment with the Lieutenant-Governorship left Canada 
to participate In many campaigns and become Commander-in-Chief 
of the British Army ; Dr. Schultz went Into politics and Parliament 

• Mr. McDougnll was simply a Governor of unorganized territories and his tenure of a provisional nature. 



COMPLETING CONFEDERATION 371 

and lived to be Lieutenant-Governor of the Province in which he had 
played so important a pioneer part ; Lieutenant-Colonels Jarvis and 
Casault were decorated with the C. M. G. and the former rose to a 
good position in the British army ; while William McDoug-all lived 
an unsatisfactory and upon the whole unsuccessful political career 
which ended with defeat in his candidature for Parliament in 1882 and 
1SS7. Meantime, many of the troops settled in the Province, other 
settlers came as a result of liberal land laws and Manitoba began to 
slowly and steadily progress. 

OTHER PROVINCES ENTER CONFEDERATION 

On July 20th, 1 8/ 1, British Columbia entered Confederation 
and thus followed the example of Manitoba — with the difference of 
coming in peace rather than in conflict. Its history, up to this time, 
had been largely one of mining excitements and of Hudson's Bay 
Company trade and government. In 1858 it had been made a dis- 
tinct colony for purposes of administration during the gold discove- 
ries of the period. In 1866, Vancouver Island and the Mainland had 
been united, with a Lieutenant-Governor and a Legislative Council — 
the latter passing a Resolution favourable to Confederation, in 1867, 
which was disapproved of by its Governor. On January 29th of the fol- 
lowing yeara large meeting was held in Victoria and a movement started 
by Amor de Cosmos, J. F. McCreight, John Robson, Robert Beaven, 
Hugh Nelson, H. P. P. Crease and other afterward prominent citizens, 
to bring about union with the Dominion. The chief opponent of the 
policy was Dr. Helmcken, who seems to have had a strong annexa- 
tion sentiment and to have been supported by American settlers who 
deemed the chief interest of the Colony to be with the States to the 
south. In March, 1870, a great debate took place in tlie Council 
and a favourable Resolution based upon arrangements proposed by 
the new Governor, Mr. Anthony Musgrave, was carried. Messrs. 
Helmcken, Carrall and J. \\". Trutch were then sent to Ottawa and 



372 COMPLETING CONFEDERATION 

the terms finally settled — the principal item of discussion being a 
pledge by the Dominion Government to construct a trans-continental 
railway. As the people of British Columbia well knew it was only 
by such means that the Province could be brought into the Dominion 
in any other than the barest technical and territorial sense. 

The measure was hotly debated in the House of Commons at 
Ottawa because of the great responsibilities assumed in the proposed 
railway construction. But it was eventually carried and there came 
into the now giant-like proportions of the Dominion a Province whose 
mountains were veined and tunnelled with gold and other precious 
metals ; whose vast coal preserves were destined to supply the whole 
Pacific slope ; whose mighty peaks were clothed in forests from the 
top of their rugged sides to the rushing rivers at the bottom ; whose 
streams and coast waters teemed with fish or sands of gold ; whose 
fertile acres in certain sections grew some of the finest fruits known 
to the world ; whose climate is a boast to its people and a pleasure to 
its visitors. 

Since 1864, when the Government of little Prince Edward Island 
had precipitated the varied problems of all the Provinces into a 
common melting-pot through its proposal to Nova Scotia and New 
Brunswick to discuss a maritime union, trouble and perplexity had 
been its lot. Its Delegates had participated in the Conference at 
Quebec, but were unable to carry the Seventy-two Resolutions through 
a Legislature which, by twenty-three votes to five, declared that join- 
ing the union would prove "politically, commercially and financially 
disastrous to the rights and interests of its people." Their position 
was, indeed, a somewhat peculiar one. Without public lands, mines, 
or forests they had nothing to supplement the small allowance pro- 
posed by the Dominion Government ; while the insular situation of 
the Province would, they believed, deprive it of all practical share in 
Federal expenditures upon railways, canals and other great public 



COMPLETING CONFEDERATION 373 

works to which they would have to contribute a due proportion of 
taxation. They would also be overshadowed and their place in Con- 
federation, it was claimed, be insignificant and unenviable. 

By 1873, however, the abrogation of the Reciprocity Treaty had 
deprived the Province of what had been its best market, up to that 
time, and had almost ruined its largj-e fishing interests. Exhausted 
forests had killed a prosperous ship-building trade and railway com- 
plications had arisen which involved the Province to an extent beyond 
its means ; while the failure to effect any change in the land-rent 
system of the Island seemed to indicate that this vital question would 
never be settled until it had obtained Dominion backing and support. 
Early in 1873, therefore, overtures were made to Ottawa and Messrs. 
R. P. Haythorne and David Laird sent as Delegates to try and make 
arrangements. After repeated discussions, terms of union were 
signed by Sir John Macdonald, the Hon. H. L. Langevin, the Hon. 
Joseph Howe and the Hon. Charles Tupper for the Dominion and 
by Messrs. Haythorne and Laird for the Province. After a general 
election, in which the arrangement was declared unsatisfactory, a 
change of local Government took place and Messrs. J. C. I^ope, T. 
H. Haviland and G. W. Howlan were sent to Ottawa to obtain better 
terms. These they finally got and, on July i, 1873, the Province 
entered Confederation. The much troubled land question was settled 
by an Act of the Dominion Parliament which compelled the proprie- 
tors of large estates to accept an equitable price on the award of 
Arbitrators chosen by the Government, the landlords and the tenants 
respectively — the purchase money being paid by funds allowed to the 
Province under the terms of Confederation — and the lands resold to 
the people at cost and upon easy terms of payment. 

While this process of expansion was going on the vast, unorgan- 
ized, and almost unknown regions between Manitoba and the Rocky 
Mountains, and between the borders of the United States and the 



374 COMPLETING CONFEDERATION 

Arctic Ocean, were gradually coming into constitutional form and 
shape as well as into popular knowledge. On April 12, 1876, Kee- 
watin, with its area of 756,000 square miles, was organized into a 
District under the jurisdiction of the Lieutenant-Governor of Mani- 
toba. On May 17, 18S2, Assiniboia, Saskatchewan, Alberta and 
Athabasca, with a combined area of over 500,000 square miles, were 
constituted under a Lieutenant-Governor, with his capital at Regina 
and with institutions which slowly developed until, in 1898, they 
might be described as fully self-governing. A Lieutenant-Governor 
and Crown-appointed Council ; an Advisory Council and four mem- 
bers chosen from an elected Assembly of twenty-two members ; an 
Executive Council and Legislative Assembly with full Provincial 
powers except as to borrowing money and controlling Crown-lands ; 
complete responsible government in 1S9S ; were the various stages in 
this progress. Mr. F. W. G. Haultain was the leading figure in this 
system of political growth and is now (1900) Premier of a steadily 
growing population in what is termed the Norih-West Territories. 
Meanwhile, on October 2, 1895, much of the still unorganized far 
northern territory of over a million square miles had been formed 
into the Districts of Mackenzie, Ungava and Franklin and placed 
under the control of the Regina Government. In 1897 there was 
further change and the District of Yukon was created and placed 
under the same jurisdiction. As the blinding- o-lare of the eold dis- 
coveries loomed above the horizon, it was, however, deemed desira- 
ble to take this region under Dominion management and on June 13, 
1898, this was done. 

So far, this steady expansion of the new Dominion had been 
great and successful. The amount of tactful skill and political 
diplomacy required for such varied and continuous negotiation and 
arrangement can be only estimated from this sketch of actual events. 
Rut it is not difficult to read between the lines and to see how much 




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COMPLETING CONFEDERATION 377 

of care and anxiety and labour must have gone into the completing 
of Confederation. The North- West troubles, the Indians, the railway 
question of the West, the land problem of the island garden of the 
Gulf of St. Lawrence, were only a few of the more prominent issues. 
Sir John Macdonald, however, had able assistants in Tupper and 
Tilley, Rose and Hincks and Cartier and, although mistakes were 
made, it is well to fully appreciate the constructive labour and skill 
required to carry out the all-important political and constitutional 
expansion of this period. 

SECESSION MOVEMENT IN NOVA SCOTIA 

One great difficulty connected with an original Province of the 
Union had to be faced and disposed of in 1868-9. It was the secession 
movement in Nova Scotia which was created, guided and controlled 
by Joseph Howe. Indirectly connected with it was an event which 
occurred on April 7, 1868 — the assassination of D'Arcy McGee. 
The eloquent Irishman who had done so much to bring his fellow- 
countrymen into support and sympathy for the federal principle and 
its subsequent application, and whose whole later career — with a 
single exception — had been one of conciliation in politics as well as 
of innate courtesy in manner, had left the House after delivering a 
bright and patriotic speech upon the desirability of patience and 
kindly treatment in connection with Nova Scotian matters. He was 
just entering his own door when a member of the Fenian Brother- 
hood stepped up behind and shot him dead. The exception referred 
to had been the Fenians, whom he greatly detested, of whose secrets 
he knew much and who had thus dogged him to his death. Rewards 
amounting to $20,000 were offered for the capture of the murderer and, 
finally, a man named Whelan was arrested, convicted and hanged. 

Meanwhile, repeal of the Union became the watchword of Nova 
Scotia, the clarion call of Howe and his associates. In the elections 
following Confederation, Dr. Tupper had been the only non-Repealer 



378 COMPLETING CONFEDERATION 

elected to the Commons, while only two of the same stripe had been 
returned to the Provincial Assembly. Howe was supreme and the 
feeling of the people was extremely bitter. They believed they had 
been carried into the Union by a trick ; they knew that no chance to 
vote upon it had been given them. Resolutions were passed by the 
Legislature demanding the right to secede and Howe was sent w-ith 
a Delegation and immense petitions to lay the matter at the foot of 
the Throne and to use every influence of persuasion or threat to 
induce the Imperial Parliament to grant the right of repeal. To 
London, also, went Dn Tupper by request of Sir John Macdonald and 
the long drawn battle of the two Provincial leaders was thus transferred 
from the small arena of Nova Scotia to the Halls of Westminster. 

Naturally and inevitabl)', Howe was vanquished, though he had 
the ready support of such Little Englanders as John Bright, and he 
returned home with nothing before him but a hopeless rebellion which 
could have been easily stirred up, or the acceptance of a compromise 
already suggested by Dr. Tupper and under which the Province might 
be given better terms. The fate of Nova Scotia was more truly in 
the hollow of his hand than had ever been that of Lower Canada in 
the grasp of Papineau. Fortunately, moderation and good sense won 
the day, assisted by a visit to Halifax of Sir John Macdonald, Dr. 
Tupper and other leaders. The result was helped, also, by the 
sufferings of the fisher-folk from a very severe season and by the 
money and provisions which poured into the affected districts from 
generous-minded people in the other Provinces. In the end matters 
were settled quietly and the Dominion Government agreed to make . 
itself responsible for a larger portion of the Provincial debt, to pay a 
yearly subsidy of $82,698 for ten years and to render compensation 
for certain losses in revenue resulting from Confederation. 

Howe did his part in arranging these negotiations, in patrioti- 
cally conciliating the people to the new and inevitable conditions, and 



COMPLETING CONFEDERATION 379 

in carrying the Province for the settlement. He even took a seat in 
the Dominion Government and four years later accepted the Lieu- 
tenant-Governorship of his native Province during the month in 
which his flame of life was flickering towards extinction. But the 
brightness of life had left him with the loss of public sympathy and 
personal affection which followed upon his acceptance of Confedera- 
tion. The strength of reason and necessity might lead the people of 
Nova Scotia to accept and politically support him in the change, but 
the instinct of affection, the influence of heart to heart, which had 
made him their idol seemed to be eone forever. He had fallen from 
his pedestal in the minds of the people and no amount of honest 
belief in duty, or the sincere consciousness that he was right, appears 
to have availed in preserving to Howe the old vigour of his life and 
action. On June i, 1873, this extraordinary man passed away, leav- 
ing a record of greatness in a small sphere which makes the student 
of history regret that the wider realms of achievement had not been 
open for him to share in and to wonder what high place he might 
have attained in the Dominion, or the Empire, had not that fatal mis- 
take of opposing Confederation been originally made. 



CHAPTER XIX 
The Treaty of Washington 

FOLLOWING the abrogation of the Reciprocity Treaty in 1866, 
there had been for some years no definite arrangement with the 
United States respecting either fisheries or trade, and this had 
given a natural impetus to chances of international complication and 
trouble. The feeling between the two countries was distinctly 
unfriendly, as was to be expected from the deliberate action of the 
United States in refusing to continue or even discuss reciprocity; 
from its slack policy concerning the F"enian raids and the frequent 
expression of a desire by the Republic to acquire possession of the 
Provinces; from the general belief in the United States that British 
America had sympathized with the South in the Civil War and should 
be made responsible, in some way, for this as well as for the alleged 
unfriendly policy of England at the same juncture. 

ATTEMPTS TO RENEW THE RECIPROCITV TREATY 

Attempts were made on the part of the British Provinces in 1866 
and 1869 — two years after Confederation — to renew the Reciprocity 
Treaty, and when, finally, the Alabama Claims dispute precipitated 
matters at issue between Great Britain and the Republic it was hoped 
and believed in Canada that the High Joint Commission which was 
appointed early in 1S71 to try and arrange a treaty of peace and set- 
tlement, would include in the desired result a consideration of trade 
questions and Fenian raid indemnities as well as of the fishery difficulties 
on the Atlantic which had recently developed. The Commissioners 
included Sir Stafford Northcote, Earl de Grey and Ripon, Sir John 
Macdonald and Mr. Hamilton Fish, Secretary of State for the Republic. 



THE TREATY OF WASHINGTON 381 

These were the men who chiefly moulded the policy and con- 
trolled the details of the negotiations. Sir S. Northcote, who died 
twenty years later as Earl of Iddesleigh and a most respected Con- 
servative leader, was, even at this time, a well-known figure in politics. 
But he owed his appointment on this Commission primarily to 
a diplomatic desire on the part of the Gladstone Government 
to hold in check possible future criticism by the Opposition. 
Earl de Grey, who afterwards became Viceroy of India and Mar- 
quess of Ripon, was a man of high character and attainments, 
but without any strong Imperial sentiment. He was tinctured, in fact, 
with the Manchester School feeling of that time, that Colonies, what- 
ever their value, were not worth the final arbitrament of a ereat 
war. 

A DIFFICULT POSITION 

It must have been, and we know now it was, with a heavy and doubt- 
ful heart that Sir John Macdonald accepted on behalf of Canada a place 
amongst British Commissioners controlled by such conditions, and by 
the very slightly disguised hope on the part of their own Govern- 
ment that they would bring back a Treaty of some kind and even at 
great sacrifice. The full details of these memorable negotiations were 
not known at the time, and had to be concealed even when the Canadian 
Premier and H igh Commissioner stood before the bar of his own Parlia- 
ment in defence of the Treaty, and of himself, and made one of the 
great speeches of his political life. What he had to contend with in the 
Conference from unexpected indifference on the part of the other 
British Commissioners, or from expected hostility on the part of its 
American members, we now understand from his private correspon- 
dence with the members of the Canadian Government, as published 
in Mr. Pope's Memoirs in 1S94. At the formal meetings of the Com- 
mission and in the more frequent informal gatherings of its members 
he stood for Canadian rights and for justice to Canadian interests. 



382 THE TREATY OF WASHINGTON 

Reciprocity in trade or tariffs it was soon found impossible to 
attain, and this was, of course, a matter in which Great Britain was not 
directly concerned and which the United States had a perfect right 
to discuss or not as pleased it. But the Fenian raids indemnity was 
a different thing. Canada had suffered much in the alarm of its citi- 
zens, in the death of its brave sons defending their soil against wan- 
ton aggression, in the temporary paralysis of business, in the expen- 
diture of millions of money. There was absolutely no doubt as to 
the indifference displayed by American authorities regarding the inva- 
sion and as to all the preliminary drilling and arrangements extending 
over many months of loud-tongued preparation. There was no doubt, 
also, of its responsibility in a national sense for the injury thus 
done to a friendly neighbour — an injury as great in comparison 
with population and wealth as that of the Alabavia to United 
States interests. 

In the earlier negotiations for a treaty the Fenian raids had been 
referred to by the Canadian Government and the hope expressed that 
its claims agj^ainst the United States for " negfliorence and want of due 
diligence " in connection with the invasion would be considered and 
adjusted at the proposed Conference. The Imperial Government 
agreed to this but, owing to the indefinite phraseology of the corre- 
spondence which followed with the Republic, the High Commissioners 
for the United States refused to have anything to do with the subject 
when the Commission finally met at Washington. They declared 
that the matter did not come within the scope of the original commu- 
nication of the British Minister and added, in words quite compre- 
hensible to those who understood the influence of the Irish vote in 
American politics, that " the claims did not commend themselves to 
their favour." The end of it all was that the British Government 
assented to their exclusion from the consideration of the High Com- 
mission and eventually consented to guarantee a loan of $2,500,ocx) 



THE TREATY OF WASHINGTON 3S3 

for the construction of the Inter-Colonial Railway and as an indemnity 
to Canada for its losses in the raids. 

The chief Canadian cjucstion before the Commission was that of 
the Atlantic Fisheries and it was this, also, which caused the most 
trouble to England and alarm to the British Commissioners. Upon 
the Alabama Claims they had practically resolved to surrender before 
meeting in conference at all and the problem was merely how to lower 
the bill of damages and keep it within reason. But when it came to 
the Canadian question both the British Government and the Com- 
missioners found that they had to deal with the Dominion and, espe- 
cially, with its keen and vigorous representative upon the Commission. 
There was need of a strong' defensive hand in the matter. The 
Americans knew wliat they wanted and very soon came to know, also, 
the weakness of their foreign colleagues and to play with diplomatic 
adroitness upon the British desire for peace and entire misapprehen- 
sion of the character of United States politics. 

DISCUSSION OF THE FISHERIES QUESTION 

The issue turned upon the interpretation of existing Treaties and 
seems to have been a very clear one in reality. In 1783 the Treaty 
of Versailles, or Paris, recognized certain privileges regarding the 
fishino- of American citizens in Canadian or British waters. When 
the value of the Atlantic fisheries became better known disputes arose 
and the Treaty of Ghent after the War of 181 2 did not attempt to 
dispose of these controversies as to the interpretation of the preceding 
Treaty. Great Britain afterwards took the ground that the war had 
abrogated all American rights whatever excepting those of interna- 
tional courtesy and, during the years 181 5, 1816 and 181 7, a number 
of American vessels were seized for attempting to assert the claim to 
privileges granted by the original Treaty. 

Various negotiations were held and, finally, the Convention of 
1 8 18 was signed at London on October 20th, by which Great 



384 THE TREATY OF WASHINGTON 

Britain granted the liljerty to fish in certain defined waters and 
to dry and cure fish at certain specified places, in return for a renun- 
ciation "forever", by the United States, of the right to fish within 
three marine miles of any of the coasts, bays, creeks or harbours 
not included in the specified waters. No language could be more 
clear than the terms of this Treaty, yet, during succeeding years 
frequent attempts were made — some by violence — to infringe its 
conditions and to make free use of the fisheries. V'arious vessels 
were seized and much irritation caused. Then came the Reciprocity 
Treaty of 1S54 by which the inshore fisheries were thrown open to 
Americans in return for the free exchange of the natural products of 
the Provinces and the Republic. The abrogation of the Treaty in 
1866 threw the Britsh Government back upon the arrangement of 
181S, made the equipment of a marine protective force necessary and 
renewed the precedent condition of irritation — despite an attempt to 
compromise the matter, by an issue of licenses under the jurisdiction 
of the new Dominion, which failed owino- to the refusal of the Amer- 
ican fishermen to accept either leave or license and their evident 
determination to fish by force. 

The only thing Canada could now do was to assert its rights 
under the Convention of 18 iS and, accordingly, the license system 
was done away with, after consultation with the Imperial Govern- 
ment, and a small lleet of cruisers was prepared and chartered in 
1870 for the defence of the fisheries. Collisions followed, more 
American vessels were seized, angry diplomatic notes went from 
Washington to London, the American press stormed at Canada, and, 
at the time of the meeting of the High Commission events seemed 
to be pressing towards a warlike solution. All through the ensuing 
deliberations there were, on the part of the British Commissioners, 
evidences of fear that if the issue was not settled bv a treat v some 




THE HON. THOMAS GREENWAY 
Premier of Manitoba, 1888-99 



THE HON. HUGH JOHN MACDONALD, Q.C. 
Premier of Manitoba in 1900 



THE TREATY OF WASHINGTON 3S7 

such result would follow. Sir John Macdonald's private letters* 
to Sir Charles Tupper and Sir John Rose and Sir George Cartier 
teem with references to the situation thus created and to the lack of 
backbone in his British colleagues. Upon one occasion, Lord de 
Grey informed him that " he believed it was the general impression 
in England and, especially, of the Government, that the danger was 
great and pressing." Again, some days later, he writes that Lord de 
Grey had told him several times that " If this attempt should fail no 
peaceable solution is possible." 

There was a certain amount of excuse for the attitude of the 
British Commissioners. They represented the Gladstone Govern- 
ment which was at this very time allowing Russia to tear up the Black 
Sea Treaty and to destroy the chief fruits of the Crimean struggle — 
a Government also which was notoriously fearful of all war and was 
the embodiment of the peace at any price and Manchester school 
theories. They represented a feeling which was then dominant in 
England and which did not understand the value of the Colonies to 
Great Britain and disliked all responsibilities of an Imperial character. 
They did not comprehend American methods and character and, when 
President Grant in December, 1870, wrote a Message to Congress 
which practically threatened war if the questions at issue were not 
settled, they regarded it with the same seriousness as they would a 
similar document presented to Parliament by the Queen with the 
approval of her Ministers. The irresponsibility of the President in 
such matters and the inter-play of American politics and diplomacy 
were not as clearly comprehended as they are to-day. 

Other questions at issue besides the Atlantic fisheries were the 
boundaries of Alaska and the ownership of the Island of San Juan 
under the terms of the Oregon Treaty. They may be disposed of 
at once by saying that the former was dealt with in the new Treaty 

* Memoirs oi Sir John A. Macdonald. by Joseph Pope, Ottawa, 1894. 



388 THE TKEATY UF WASHINGTON 

in such an indefinite manner as not to dispose of it and that the latter 
was given into the hands of the German Emperor, William I., as 
Arbitrator, who disposed of it very effectually in December, 1872, by 
giving;' tlie Island to the United States. By the Oregon Treaty of 
1846 the United States had received the splendid region of the Puget 
Sound and the present States of Oregon and Washington. The 
boundary line was to run along the 49th parallel " to the middle of 
the channel which separates the continent from Vancouver Island and 
thence southerly through the middle of said channel, and of the 
Fuca Straits, to the Pacific Ocean." The dispute of the ensuing 
period, which resulted in a joint military occupation of San Juan 
Island and more than once brought the Empire and the Republic 
to the verge of war, turned upon the fact that there was not one, but 
three, channels, and that upon the question of which channel should 
be selected as the dividing line depended the ownership of this island 
which guarded the front of American territory on these waters and 
faced the British Provincial capital — Victoria. Great Britain claimed 
the most southerly of these channels, but was willing to accept the 
middle one as a just and reasonable compromise. For some inscruta- 
ble reason, best known to himself, the Imperial Arbitrator accepted 
the American claim. 

But this is getting far ahead of the Commissioners as they 
debated and battled over the terms of the proposed Treaty, during 
the spring of 1871, in the private and political halls of Washington. 
The American Government and Commissioners wanted much. They 
desired San Juan to be given up to them, the Fenian raids to be 
eliminated from consideration, the Alaskan boundary to be adjusted 
to their satisfaction, the Atlantic fisheries to be thrown open to them 
for all time and for some very slight consideration, the St. Lawrence 
and its canals to be made free forever. These thinorswere, of course, 
apart from their enormous claims for compensation from Great Britain 



THE TREATY OF WASHINGTON 389 

regarding the Alabama. In return they were willing to give peace 
and perhaps free fish and the navigation of Lake Michigan. What 
Canada eventually obtained in the Treaty as well as the limitation of 
her inevitable sacrifices, maybe seen in its terms and they sufficiently 
vindicate the stand taken by Sir John Macdonald, while showing how 
great the difference really was between American expectations and 
American realizations. 

THE TERMS OF THE TREATY 

The Treaty of Washington was signed on May 8, 1871. By its 
terms the Alabama Claims were submitted to an Arbitration tribunal 
which met at Geneva in the following year and of which Sir Alex- 
ander Cockburn, the sturdy, aggressive Lord Chief Justice of Eng- 
land, was a prominent member. By its decision, against which Chief 
Justice Cockburn vigorously protested, the sum of $15,500,000 was 
awarded to the United States as damages and was promptly paid by 
Great Britain. It was thought by many at the time that the amount 
was too large and this appears to have been an accurate belief from 
the fact that claimants could never be found for a portion of it and 
have not been found yet. The fisheries question was settled for the 
time by a twelve year arrangement, under which fish and fish-oil were 
to be admitted free as between the Dominion and the States, while 
each was to share freely in the fisheries of the other. As the Atlantic 
fisheries of the United States were comparatively valueless and entirely 
useless to the Canadian fishermen, while those of Canada were rich 
in the most teeming sense of the word, it was decided — after long 
discussions in which the American Commissioners very properly did 
their utmost to minimize the value of what they were striving to 
obtain — that a lump sum should be paid the Dominion and that the 
amount of this payment should be settled by another special Com- 
mission. It may be added here, that this Commission met at Halifax 
on June 15, 1877, after prolonged delay on the part of the United 



390 THE TREATY OF WASHINGTON 

States. The British and Canadian Commissioner was Sir Alexander 
Tilloch Gait and Newfoundland and Canada were finally awarded 
$5,500,000 as the value of the fishing privileges granted the United 
States in 1871 over and above the reciprocal clauses of the Treaty.* 
Payment was ultimately made after vigorous protests from Congress 
and the United States Government. 

By the Washington Treaty Americans were admitted to the 
navigation of the St. Lawrence River and to the use of the canal 
system of Canada upon equal terms with British subjects and under 
the same conditions as the latter in any tolls, or charges, which might 
be levied by the Dominion Government. They were, also, allowed 
the privilege of taking timber from the Maine woods down the River 
St. John to the sea — a most important matter in those days. Pro- 
vision was made for the free passage of goods in bond through either 
country. This was an arrangement by which goods from one part of 
the Rej^ublic could pass over Canadian soil to another part of the 
United States without paying duty to the Canadian authorities and 
by which Canadian products might have a similar privilege in crossing 
United States land or water territory. It was a most serviceable and 
beneficial arransfement to both countries in freneral and to their 
transportation interests in particular. The navigation of Lake 
Michigan was also made free for twelve years but, as the St. Law- 
rence was thrown open forever, it has never since been seriously 
suggested that this clause could be anything but a practically perma- 
nent one. A most important item in the Treaty, and one which 
reflects credit upon Sir John Macdonald, was the recognition of 
Canada's right under the Anglo-Russian arrangement of 1S25 to 
share in the free navigation of the Yukon, Porcupine and Stikine 
Rivers in Alaska. Had the future been fullv forseen it is to be feared 



* The Dominion received $4,490,582 of this amount — not the whole of it as is usually stated. Newfoundlaud obtained 
the balance. 



THE TREATY OF WASHINGTON 391 

that the fight over this chuise would have been much keener than it 
was. The St. Clair Canal and Flats, between Lakes Huron and 
Erie, were also thrown open to both nations. 

Such was the Washington Treaty in brief. Born of the travail 
of possible war and continuous and bitter controversy ; discussed with 
a million soldiers in the United States ready for any service or adven- 
ture and amid the clamours of a discontented and angry Fenian ele- 
ment in the same country ; arranged by British Commissioners who 
were responsible to a weak-kneed Government and an electorate still 
controlled by the anti-Colonial school of thought ; it was upon the 
whole better for Canada than might have been expected. Nothing of 
serious import was given away and no national or territorial right was 
sacrificed. It is true that San Juan was lost but, as neither England 
nor Canada can apparently expect to win in a foreign Arbitration, 
the matter might well have been discounted. In any case it was not 
worth the other arbitrament of war. Nearly $5,000,000 in money 
was obtained for the use of the fisheries and, although the clauses 
dealing with this part of the subject were abrogated by the United 
States in 1885, that action was not without its compensation in the 
practical recovery of Canadian fishing grounds for Canadian fishermen. 

To Sir John Macdonald the negotiations were a niehtmare of 
diplomacy. He expected to fight vigorously against the American 
Commissioners and to find in them the keenest and wariest of anta- 
gonists. They were on their own ground, with a President and Senate 
which would back up a strong and aggressive policy, and they were 
contending for enhanced influence and power for their own people 
upon the American continent. But to have to strueele a^^ainst 
his own British colleagues as well as the American Commissioners 
was to Sir John a continuous irritation and a very heavy burden to 
his heart. " In our separate caucuses," he wrote, on one occasion, to 
Dr. Tupper, "my colleagues were continually pressing me to yield." 



392 THE TREATY OF WASHINGTON 

They even supported the American desire for a permanent cession of 
the fisheries. He described the discussions with them as being 
"warm," or "unpleasant," and wrote once of being obHged to tell 
Lord de Grey that " I believed I knew what my duty was and 
would endeavour to perform it." He had to tell them plainly on 
another occasion * that " it was intolerable that these New Eng- 
land fishermen should say they were resolved to fish in our waters, 
right or wrong, and if not allowed would force on a war between the 
two nations ; and we ought not to sacrifice our property by reason of 
such threats." 

Several times his protests were sent to England and ultimately 
made good ; several times he was on the point of resigning. One of 
these occasions was when the cable came from London authorizing- a 
reference of the value of the fisheries to arbitration. Fortunately, he 
did not do so and wrote afterwards to Dr. Tupper that had he left 
the Commission then the lease of the fisheries would have been for 
twenty-five years and fish-oil would have been excluded from free 
interchange. Finally, he felt the whole matter so bitterly that he 
hoped to avoid signing the Treaty and thus to throw the responsi- 
bility where it belonged. But the protests were so strong and the 
reasons so apparent that he did not eventually do so. Without his 
signature the Treaty would probably not have passed the American 
Senate and could certainly not have been carried at Ottawa. Once it 
was signed by him he assumed the fullest responsibility ; uttered not 
one complaint in all the twenty years of his further public life ; and 
suffered a most unjust share of obloquy in Canada for its acceptance. 

HOW THE TREATY WAS RECEIVED IN" CANAD.V 

When Sir John arrived home from Washington he received a 
perfect storm of censure from the Opposition press. He was declared 
a traitor to Canadian interests and a Judas Iscariot and Benedict 



• Letter to Sir George Cartier, April 17, 1871. Pope's fifeinoir^. 



THE TREATY OF WASHINGTON 393 

Arnold combined in one. Parliament was not to meet until the suc- 
ceeding February and for nearly a year the Premier endured this 
unstinted abuse in perfect silence. Of course, neither the people at 
laro[e, nor the Opposition, nor his own followers, knew, or ever did 
know, the truth about the Commission. That has awaited his death 
and the consideration of another generation. Had it been any other 
man he could not have overcome the situation. But Sir John's per- 
sonality, popularity and the sense of the inevitable carried the Treaty 
through Parliament in the spring of 1872. The speech delivered by 
the Premier was memorable for a.i eloquence which was not an ordi- 
nary characteristic of the man and for a degree of earnestness and force 
which carried the second reading by 121 to 55. His chief argument 
consisted of the fact that while Canada was making some sacrifices in 
accepting the arrangement yet she was making them for the sake of 
the Empire and its future friendly relations with the United States. 
In the elections which followed shortly afterwards the Treaty had 
a considerable place and was the chief ground of attack upon the 
Government. " I had," wrote Sir John to Lord Monck, the Gov- 
ernor-General, "to fight a stern and up-hill battle in Ontario. I never 
worked so hard before and never shall do so again, but I felt it to be 
necessary this time. I did not want a verdict against the Treaty from 
the country." The elections were won but he always believed that 
a rankling dissatisfaction in the popular mind contributed greatly to 
his defeat in those of 1874. The Treaty, however, was now a fact of 
history, the Alabama troubles had been settled, the fisheries were 
removed for some years from their place as a serious international 
irritant, the fear of conflict on the British Columbia borders was 
eliminated and the past relations of the Empire and the Republic 
during the Civil War were left to the cooling influence of time, and 
the soothing process of partial forgetfulness. 



CHAPTER XX 
Political Oucstions and Development 

THE growth and progress of a country does not always appear on 
the broad surface of affairs or in the discussion and settlement 
of what are called great public questions. These latter mark 
outwardly the inward development and are useful also as educative 
influences upon the people or, in some cases, as evidences of popular 
influence upon the politicians. Especially true is this conclusion in 
connection with the first working years of a new Constitution. 

A WIDER AND WIDENING COMMONWEALTH 

When Canada put on the Federal garb in 1867 fresh conditions 
were faced, new problems were presented, important controversies 
were imminent. It was hoped, however, that the tea-pot troubles of 
restricted states, the occasionally fantastic fancies of isolated colonies, 
would be mergfed in the lar^rer affairs of a wider and wideninsf 
commonwealth. In great part this hope was realized. The jealousies 
of Quebec and Ontario,* were modified to a desrree which removed 
the element of dancrer and enabled them to work tOijether with 
comfort and effectiveness. The isolation and inevitable narrowness 
of view in the Maritime Provinces were gradually ameliorated under 
wider political conditions and important national issues. The crude- 
ness, the violence, the bigotry of politics in the Canadas were modified 
by the redistribution of parties and the change in party lines brought 
about by Sir John A. Macdonald's policy of conciliation and tact. 

• From the time of the Act of 17^1 to the Union of 1841 these two Provinces were termed Lower and Upper Canada 
respectively ; from the Union until ContcderiAtion they were ofTiciatty, if not popularly, called Canada Kasi and Canada 
West: by tlte Act of Confederation in i8'>7 they were given their present and permanent names — the word " Canada** 
bviiig used to cover the new Dominion then created and within five years to include all British North Atnerica except 
Newfoundland. 

394 




THE HON. SIR CHARLES HIBBERT TUPPER 
K.C.M.G., Q.C., M.P. 



THE HON. SIR ADOLPHEJ. P. R. CARON 
K.C.M.G. 




THE HON. SIR ALEXANDER CAMPBELL 
K.C.M.G. 



THE HON. SIR D. L. MACPHERSON 

K.C.M.G. 

Senator of CnnaJa 



POLITICAL QUESTIONS AND DEVELOPMENT 397 

Before Confederation he had laboured for the harmonizing of 
extreme Tories with moderate Conservatives, of French-Canadian 
moderates, or followers of Lafontaine, with Upper Canadian Liberals 
of moderate views who had once followed Baldwin, into a great party 
to which he eventually gave the somewhat clumsy title of Liberal- 
Conservative. In some measure he had succeeded and would have 
done so in a far wider and more effective manner had not the rivalry 
of French and English opinion, of Lower and Upper Canada, been 
for the time hopelessly violent. Confederation, however, came and 
with it the opportunity to develop his large views in practical form 
and to give his party an important place upon a really national canvas. 

THE FIRST CABINET OF THE DOMINION 

The first Cabinet of the Dominion was, in accordance with this 
policy of assimilation, composed in equal parts of men who had been 
at one time either Liberals or Conservatives. In support of his Gov- 
ernment he was able, by virtue of conciliation and calculation, to com- 
bine the large majority of French-Canadians and to give an impetus 
to Conservative sentiment in that Province which lasted for fully 
twenty years. 

The Ministry was termed a coalition, but George Brown, as leader 
of the Upper Canada Liberals, would have nothing to do with the 
new " Sir John " any more than he would with the old "John A."* 
His aggressive, uncompromising will would brook no superior in 
council, or even an equal, and though compelled for a brief space to 
co-operate with Macdonald in the Cabinet which helped to arrange 
the terms of Confederation, he left it as soon as possible and 
resumed the old terms of personal non-intercourse with the only man 
whom he deemed a rival. In his refusal to accept the Federal Cabinet 

* During the years stretching from his entry into public life in the early " Forties " until Confederation , when the 
Queen made him a K. C. B., Mr. Macdonald was known far and wide as " John A." and with every year the affectionate 
popular appellation grew in use. After his Knighthood there was only one " Sir John " from the Atlantic to the Pacific. 
The surname was supcrfiuous. 



398 POLITICAL Of ESTIONS AND DEVELOPMENT 

of 1867 as a representative coalition Brown was joined by Mr. A. A. 
Dorion and a few of the old-time Liberal leaders of Quebec and the 
nucleus of a present Opposition in Parliament and of a future Dominion 
Liberal party was thus formed. 

Of course, Sir John Macdonald never intended his Ministry' to 
be a real coalition or to remain for lonof as even a nominal one. His 
intention was to form all parties and public men, who might be avail- 
able, into a strong-, united organization capable of carrying on the 
Government with a firm hand, of maintaining defined and vigorous 
principles, of preventing any more such experiences of weakness and 
inefficiency as had preceded Confederation, of harmonizing hostile 
elements which would otherwise drift further apart and endanger the 
successful working of the new constitution, of affording scope for 
the exercise of his own powers of leadership and government. Within 
a comparatively short time his policy was successful and, despite 
Liberal Conventions and George Brown's desperate efforts in The 
Toronto Globe, the Conservative party became a compact organization 
with the Prime Minister as practically its head and front and plat- 
form. 

The first Cabinet of the new Dominion was made up very largely 
of men who had worked energetically for Confederation and who, 
therefore, deserved consideration at the hands of the incoming Pre- 
mier. It was not easy to arrange it and the mere fact, as stated in 
Canadian historical works, that a Government was formed on July 
I, 1867, by Sir John Macdonald with a specified list of colleagues, 
affords little hint of the difficulties he really had to encounter. 
That of a surplus of available men is not an unusual condition in 
such cases and may be passed over with the statement that the exclu- 
sion of Dr. Tupper and D'Arcy McGee has always seemed a curious 
one — the details not being generally known then or since. The neces- 
sity, however, of giving each Province proper representation, of 



POL/T/CAL QUESTIONS AND DEVELOPMENT 399 

leaving- room for the admission of representatives from Manitoba and 
I'rince Edward Island and British Columbia, of erantinsr the Irish 
electorate a certain consideration and of recognizing the Protestants 
of the Eastern Townships of Quebec, was the rock upon which the 
nebulous Cabinet nearly came to wreck in the week preceding July 
1st.* Eventually, this result was avoided by Dr. Tupper and his 
friend McGee retiring from the " slate" on which they had, of course, 
been amongst the first to receive a place and thus making it possible 
to give the French-Canadians another representative. The Ministry 
was as follows and was sustained at the ensuing elections by a fair 
majority : 

Premier and Minister of Justice, Sir John A. Macdonald. 

Minister of Finance, Hon. A. T. Gait. 

Minister of Public Works, Hon. William McDougall. 

Minister of Militia and Defence, Sir G. E. Cartier. 

Minister of Customs, Hon. S. L. Tilley. 

Minister of Agriculture, Hon. J. C. Chapais. 

Postmaster-General, Hon. Alexander Campbell. 

Minister of Marine and Fisheries, Hon. Peter Mitchell. 

Minister of Inland Revenue, Hon. W. P. Howland. 

President of the Council, Hon. A. J. Fergusson-Blalr. 

Receiver-General, Hon. Edward Kenny. 

Secretary of State, Hon. H. L. Langevin. 

Secretary of State for the Provinces, Hon. A. G. Archibald. 

Of these members Macdonald, Gait, Cartier, Campbell, Lange- 
vin, Chapais and Kenny had been Conservatives and McDougall, 
Tilley, Mitchell, Howland, Archibald and Fergusson-Blair Liberals — 
under previous Provincial conditions. Many of the latter indeed, 
continued for some time to call themselves by the old name and to 
consider their Ministry as a coalition. The events of the decade 
following the formation of this administration were all-important in 

* Information given to the author by Sir Charles Tupper and other survivors of the Confederation period. 



400 POLITICAL QUESTIONS AND DEVELOPMENT 

the making of Canada. Those which stand out most prominently, 
with one exception, were the bringing in of the outstanding Provinces, 
the insurrection in tlie North-West, the Washington Treaty and the 
developments leading up to the National Policy. They have been 
dealt with elsewhere in these pages. The exception was largely a 
political occurrence, but one which exercised a wide influence over the 
future policy of the Dominion — the Canadian Pacific Railway issue 
of 1872, which is described by Liberal partisans as a scandal and by 
Conservative partisans as a slander. It was in reality something of 
the one and something of the other. And, amidst all these public 
issues and problems the vital work of national organization went 
steadily on. 

General elections took place in 1S72 and the Government of Sir 
John Macdonald was sustained, though with a reduced majority. 
Reverses had been met with in Quebec and Ontario, owing partly to 
the fact that Sir Georg-e Cartier's failincj health led to mistakes in the 
management of matters in the former Province and partly to the 
unpopularity of the Washington Treaty in the latter. Much fear 
was also felt and expressed as to the cost of the proposed Canadian 
Pacific Railway. Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, however, made 
up for other losses by the most sweeping Conservative success. In 
Nova Scotia, owing to the wonderful influence of Howe — even when 
the personal regard of the people for him had greatly changed — 
there was but one member returned in opposition to the Union "Gov- 
ernment where in 186;, with him on the other side, there had been 
only one elected in its favour. Much, of course, was due to the fact 
that Howe and Tupper were now working together. In this year the 
Earl of Dufferin came out as Governor-General to fill a Mce-royalty 
memorable for his personal tact and unfailing courtesy, for his elo- 
quence and popularity, and as being the foundation of a career of 
steadily growing diplomatic reputation and power. Incidentally, 



POLITICAL QUESTIONS AND DEVELOPMENT 401 

Canadian riflemen in competition with the ciack shots of Great 
Britain had captured the Kolapore Cup at Wimbledon. 

THE TRANS-CONTINENTAL RAILWAY PROJECT 

But the great event of the year in Canada was Sir John Mac- 
donald's attempt to carry out the Federal pledge to British Columbia 
regarding the proposed trans-continental railway. He interested a 
number of capitalists in the project but they, unfortunately, formed 
two distinct Companies for the purpose of constructing the road under 
contract. They obtained incorporation and inaugurated a fierce rivalry 
in Parliament and the press. The Inter-Oceanic Company of Toronto 
had Mr. (afterwards Sir) D. L. McPherson as its President and men 
such as the Hon. William McMaster, the Hon. Frank Smith and the 
Hon. G. W. Allan, of Toronto, Senator Simpson of Bownanville, the 
Hon. Isidore Thibaudeau and David Torrance of Montreal, the Hon. 
John Carling of London, Casimir S. Gzowski of Toronto, John Boyd 
of St. John and Senator Price of Quebec, upon its Directorate. Sir 
Hugh Allan, the leader of many transportation interests and a capi- 
talist of keen energy and enterprise was President of the Canada- 
Pacific Company of Montreal, with men of the calibre and standing 
of the Hon. (afterwards Sir) J. J. C. Abbott, the Hon. John Ham- 
ilton, the Hon. C. J. Coursol and the Hon. J. L. Beaudry of Mon- 
treal, the Hon. James Skead of Ottawa, the Hon. J. J. Ross of 
Quebec, the Hon. Donald A. Smith (now Lord Strathcona and Mount 
Royal), Sir Edward Kenny of Halifax, Donald Mclnnes of Hamil- 
ton and C. F. Gildersleeve of Kingston, upon his Directorate. 

The measure upon which this rivalry was based had been intro- 
duced in Parliament by Sir George E. Cartier on April 26, 1872, as 
a Bill for the construction, under charter, of the Canadian Pacific 
Railway which was to extend " from some point on, or near. Lake 
Nipissing to some point on the shore of the Pacific Ocean." A grant 
of 50,000,000 acres was to be given in blocks of twenty miles in 



4o2 J'UJJTJC.IL QUESTIONS AND DEVELOPMENT 

deptli on each side of the line of the railway in Manitoba, the North- 
West Territories and British Columbia and alternatincj with similar 
blocks held by the Dominion Government for sale or grant. A cash 
subsidy of not more than ^^30,000,000 was also to be granted. The 
measure passed on May 28th after several amendments moved by 
Messrs. Edward Blake, A. A. Dorion and Alexander Mackenzie, 
on behalf of the Liberal party, had been voted down. During the 
debates upon this question, in connection with the admission of Bri- 
tish Columbia in 1S71 and in this Session of 1872, the Opposition 
laid strenuous stress upon the work as being altogether beyond the 
resources of Canada and dwelt constantly upon the frightful bur- 
dens of ta.xation which it would involve. One leader said it could 
never pay for the axle-grease upon its wheels and Mr. Blake in a 
famous speech declared that British Columbia was only a "sea of 
mountains " and therefore hardly worth so great a sacrifice. 

The Bill passed, however, and then came the delicate and difficult 
task of bringing together the rival interests of the capitalists, in one 
strong corporation, for its construction. The Companies had been origi- 
nally formed as a result of Sir John Macdonald's private efforts to inter- 
est Canadian men of money in the matter in preference to allowing the 
contract to drop into the open hands of American capitalists who had 
early expressed their willingness to take hold of the enterprise. Sir 
Hugh Allan, however, had at once communicated w^ith the Americans 
and, although their names did not appear upon his Directorate, it was 
well known that if he were successful in obtaining the contract their 
interest would be a predominant one. Mr. McPherson, on the other 
hand, had formed a Company which was purely Canadian. The hope 
of the Government, in such a difficulty, was the combination of the two 
concerns in such a way as not to absolutely exclude American capital 
while preventing it from obtaining a dominant influence in the matter. 
Moreover, Sir Hugh Allan was too important a man, too experienced 



porjrrcAL questions and development 403 

in transportation affairs, and had been too generous to the party 
which Sir John Macdonald led, to make it desirable to put him 
entirely aside. It was at this juncture that the general elections of 
1872 took place and what was afterwards termed the Pacific scandal 
occurred. Following the elections and as a rest of the apparent impos- 
sibility of bringing the two Companies together — largely because Sir 
Hugh Allan and Mr. McPherson each desired to be President of the 
consolidated concern — the charter was eventually given to a new 
Company with Sir Hugh Allan at its head. Then the greatest poli- 
tical storm in Canadian history burst upon the country. 

THE PACIFIC RAILWAY CHARGES 

On April 2, 1873, amidst suppressed excitement and in an atmos- 
phere laden with the hopes and fears of political electricity, Mr. 
Lucius Seth Huntington rose in the House of Commons with a 
statement and motion of serious import. He was a good speaker 
and a politician of some ability who had been a member of Sandfield 
Macdonald's Government in the early "sixties" and was destined to 
hold a place in the next Dominion Cabinet. The charge he made 
was dramatic in style and solemn in substance. It meant that 
the Government had trafficked with foreigners in connection with 
Canadian railway interests and in order to obtain money to debauch 
the constituencies in the elections of 1872. Stripped of verbiage 
it declared that Sir Hugh Allan, acting for American capitalists, 
had practically obtained the Pacific charter for them and himself 
through the contribution of large sums of money to the Conservative 
campaign fund and that this money had been obtained from the 
United States capitalists referred to through a man named G. W. 
McMullen. For the moment Mr. Huntington offered no proofs but 
demanded the appointment of a Committee of the House to inquire 
into the whole matter of the Railway charter. Upon motion of Sir 
John Macdonald a Select Committee composed of Messrs. J. G. 



404 PU/./T/C.lL QUESTIONS AND DEVELOPMENT 

Blanchet, Edward Blake, A. A. Dorion, James McDonald and John 
Hillyard Cameron — three Conservatives and two Liberals — was 
promptly appointed. A measure was also passed to enable the Com- 
mittee to make its inquiries from witnesses under oath. 

Parliament then adjourned to 13th August, when it was thought 
that the Committee's Report might be received. Meanwhile, the 
Oaths Bill was disallowed in London as beingr illegal and the work of 
the Committee rendered practically impossible. A tremendous sensa- 
tion was also created and a new turn given to the whole question by 
the publication of a series of letters and telegrams in Montreal which 
seemed to clearly indicate the guilt of the Ministry. Mr. McMullen, 
it was afterwards shown, had obtained them surreptitiously from the 
desk of Mr. J. j. C. Abbott, the legal adviser of Sir Hugh Allan. 
In plain English they had been stolen and then made public. Ap- 
pearing without any explanation, e.\cept of a hostile character, they 
seemed so serious that public sentiment was roused to a white heat 
and much anger was shown toward Lord Dufferin for not at once dis- 
missing his Ministry. These documents were all of a somewhat 
similar nature. The most important of them was as follows and was 
marked " Private and confidential " : 

"Montreal, 30th July, 1S72. 
Dear Sir Hugh : 

The friends of the Government will be expected to be assisted 
with funds in the pending elections, and any amount which you, or your Company 
shall advance for that purpose shall be recouped to you. A memorandum of immedi- 
ate requirements is below. Very truly yours, 

(Signed) George E. Cartur. 
Now wanted : 

Sir John A. Macdonald, S;5.ooo 

Hon. Mr. Langevin, 15.000 

Sir G. E. C. , 20,000 

Sir J. A. (add'l.), 10,000 

Sir G, E. C. (add'l.) 30,000" 




THE HON. SIR RICHARD J. CARTWRIGHT 

K.C.M.G., M.P. 

Finance Minister of C:incida, 1S7-378 



THE HON. EDWARD BLAKE 

Q.C.,LL.D.,M.P. 

Dominion Liberal Leader, 1880-87 




THE HON. SIR ANTOINE A. DORION, KNT. 
Chief justice oi tjuebec, LS74-91 



THE HON. SIR GEORGE E. CARTIER 

BART., M.P. 
Premier u{ the Canadas before Confederation 



POLITICAL QUESTIONS AND DEVELOPMENT 407 

Other documents were receipts for similar sums, requests for 
more and a telegram which became particularly well known in the 
elections and controversies of succeeding years. It was addressed to 
Mr. Abbott at Montreal, on August 26th, signed "John A. Mac- 
donald," and read as follows: "I must have another $10,000; will 
be the last time of calling ; do not fail me ; answer to-day." Mr. 
Abbott promptly wired to draw on him for the amount. In his 
subsequent evidence before a Royal Commission Sir Hugh Allan 
gave a list of the total sums which he had contributed in this connec- 
tion. They included $85,000 to Sir George Cartier's Committee in 
Montreal — where he fought a losing battle in a very doubtful con- 
stituency, against the advice of Sir John Macdonald, and was beaten ; 
$45,000 to Sir John himself, for election expenses in Ontario; and 
$32,600 to Mr. H. L. Langevin for election expenses at Quebec. Such 
is the bare detail of the matter and it certainly looks bad enough. 
Fill in these particulars with the natural animus of party warfare ; 
add the suspicions resulting from a season of company promoting 
and charter controversies; mix up in this mess the unsustained alle- 
gations of disappointed capitalists and defeated politicians ; and the 
result is still more unpleasant. 

Yet time and the justice of historic retrospect have thrown 
strong light into this dense shadow and relieved the situation of much 
that at first seemed inexcusable. Sir Hugh Allan was a man who 
would have been naturally connected with such an enterprise as the 
Canadian Pacific Railway, both by public fitness and financial power. 
He was, and always had been, a Conservative and is understood to 
have given almost as liberally to party funds in a preceding election 
as in this one of 1S72. His great transportation interests depended 
very largely for success upon the progressive policy of the Govern- 
ment and would have made him contribute to its campaign fund with- 
out any question of a C. P. R. charter. He practically controlled 



4o8 POLITICAL QUESTIONS AND DEVELOPMENT 

the Canadian freight and passenger traffic to Europe through the 
Montreal Ocean Steamship Company and was aiming to keep this 
trade as against a proposed ocean line under the auspices of the Grand 
Trunk Railway. He, therefore, had purchased, or projected, or 
obtained control of railways from Toronto to Quebec — notably the 
North Shore Railway and the Northern Colonization Line. If he 
could obtain the political assistance and co-operation of Sir George 
Cartier in his projects it would mean much in the Legislature of 
Quebec and would probably enable him to defeat the efforts of the 
Grand Trunk to capture his ocean traffic by means of a rival line. 
Hence it was that this $162,000 subscription to the election funds 
might have been obtained by Cartier without reference to the Cana- 
dian Pacific matter at all. 

Meanwhile, the election had been going on. Sir John Macdonald 
knew nothing of the immense sums which were obtained, personally, 
by Sir George Cartier for what he had described as the " insane " 
election contest in Montreal and it is not difficult to understand his 
twice-repeated calls for money during the strenuous struggle he was 
carrying on in Ontario. In tlie midst of it, on juh" jOtli, he received 
a letter from Sir Hugh Allan, saying that he had made an arrange- 
ment with Cartier by which the construction of the railway had been 
promised to his Company if the attempts at amalgamation should 
fail. Without a moment's hesitation Sir John telegraphed a repudia- 
tion of the whole matter and explicitly declared that Cartier had no 
authority to make any arrangement of the kind. Then, as the Pre- 
mier afterwards pointed out,* Sir Hugh subscribed to the party fund 
the amounts elsewhere indicated, " in the face of a positive intimation 
from the Government through me, that the road would not be given 
to his Company, but only to an amalgamated company." 

* Private letter to Lord Dufferin, explaining the situation, written on October 9, 1873, and not made public until 

1S<M- 



POLITICAL QUESTIONS AND DEVELOPMENT 409 

This must have been a serious blow to the ambitious financier, but, 
on the other hand, he had to consider the very real danger to the whole 
project and to his general transportation interests, if the Government 
were defeated. Evidently, as a busines man, he balanced his chances 
and decided to back the Conservative party for all he was worth. It 
was a case of inclination and policy going hand in hand. There is 
no doubt, also, that Cartier had committed the Government to a 
degree of which Sir John Macdonald had no conception and in which 
his repudiation of the written arrangement seems to have had little 
effect. The reason for Cartier's extraordinary course throughout this 
entire period was only known to a few at that time and was never 
known to the public. In the confidential communication to Lord 
Dufferin already quoted. Sir John says : " Not until after his death 
(May 20, 1S73) 3-"d the evidence was produced, were any of his col- 
leagues aware of his insane course. As I have already said it showed 
too clearly that his mind had broken down as well as body. Of 
course, I can say this to you only, as I would rather suffer any con- 
sequences than cast any reflection upon his memory before the public, 
or say anything that would have even the appearance of an attempt 
to transfer any blame that may attach to these transactions to any one 
who is no longer here to speak for himself" 

He then went on to point out that neither he, nor any member 
of the Government, had the slightest knowledge of the situation 
created by Cartier in Montreal. He also referred to the fact that 
money was necessary for the legitimate expenses of an election ; that 
in Canada, unfortunately, there was no Carlton Club to conduct the 
financial part of a campaign ; that money was collected and must be 
collected for these purposes and that it had to pass, more or less, 
under existingr circumstances, through the hands of Ministers. He 
might have pointed out that no one, even in those days of fiery accu- 
sation, ever charged him or his colleagues with benefiting personally 



410 POLITICAL QUESTIONS AND DEVELOPMEST 

by the moneys thus received and, it may be added here as greatly to 
his credit, that up to the day of his death Sir John Macdonald never 
uttered a word of reproach, or of insinuation, regarding the conduct 
of Sir George Cartier. The latter's long friendship and co-operation 
with Sir John and his sincere work for Canada deserved this. But, 
the incident is none the less a lasting proof of the personal fidelity and 
honour of a Canadian leader under severe strain. 

Regrettable as the whole episode was, hurtful as it was to the posi- 
tion and prospects of all concerned, injurious as it was to the fair fame of 
Canadian politics, it is yet reasonable to say that the ensuing national 
condemnation was sufificient punishment to the Conservative leaders 
and that Sir John Macdonald has come out of the whole transaction 
much cleaner politically and much better personally than even his 
ardent followers at that time had hoped for. There has been much 
nonsense written upon this subject. Money is needed in elections and 
must be obtained. There was no Conservative so rich and so avail- 
able as Sir Hugh Allan and, unless he expected to buy the charter 
by this means, there was no corruption in connection with Dominion 
politics, in his contribution. This can hardly be said, however, as to 
his expectations from Sir George Cartier in Quebec politics. The 
unfortunate mental and physical ailments of Cartier at this time are, 
perhaps, sufficient excuse for him and it is also apparent that Sir John 
Macdonald was not really responsible, though he fully assumed the 
responsibility, for his colleague's vagaries. On the other hand his 
instant repudiation of Carticr's tentative promise and the refusal of 
the Government to aid Allan's pretension to the Presidency of the 
amalgamated Company after the elections, relieves him from per- 
sonal suspicion. 

Meantime, a Royal Commission had been appointed on August 
13th to practically take the place of the now useless Select Commit- 
tee. It was composed of three well-known Judges — the Hon. Charles 



POLITICAL QUESTIONS AND DEVELOPMENT 411 

Dewey Day, the Hon. Antoine Polcttc and the Hon. James Robert 
Gowan. They presented a Report to the Governor-General on Octo- 
ber 17th containing- a summary of the evidence taken under oath and 
His Excellency at once summoned Parliament to consider it. Mr. 
Mackenzie, as leader of the Liberal Opposition, promptly moved a 
Resolution of " severe censure " and a debate followed which teemed 
with dramatic incidents and was permeated by a sullen sentiment of 
Conservative dissatisfaction. On November 3rd, Sir John Macdonald 
delivered a defence and explanation of four hours' duration and, if 
any single speech could have saved the situation, it would have done 
so. But he saw that the feellnaf had grrown too stroncr for even his 
personality to overcome and he prevented the passage of the vote of 
censure by retirement from office. 

THE MACKENZIE GOVERNMENT 

Mr. Alexander Mackenzie, a clear-headed Scotchman who had 
risen from the humble labours of a stone-mason to the higrh functions 
of a legislator, and whose character is one of the most honest and 
straightforward in Canadian political history, became Prime Minister 
on November 7th. With him in the new Ministry were the Hon. 
A. A. Dorion, the sturdy leader of Quebec Liberalism — soon to 
become Chief Justice and to adorn for many years the Bench of his 
native Province ; the Hon. Richard J. Cartvvright, a one-time Conserv- 
ative and destined to be remembered as the Canadian embodiment 
of clear, cold, cutting oratory of a type which combined the culture 
of an English gentleman with the occasional savagery of a back- 
wood's Indian ; the Hon. Luc Letellier de St. Just, a typical grand 
seigneui' of Quebec; the Hon. Albert J. Smith who, in New Bruns- 
wick had fought Confederation as Dorion had in Ouebec ; the Hon. 
L. S. Huntington, the hero of the moment and destined to practically 
drop out of Canadian history and polititics a few years later ; and the 
Hon. Edward Blake, a man possessed of remarkable legal acumen, of 



412 POIJTICAL QUESTIONS AND DEVELOPMENT 

great abilities which never reached their higher possibilities of devel- 
opment, of political attainments which did not include the essential of 
popularity and the quality of tact, of oratorical powers which were 
great in the presentation of accumulated logic but very weak in the 
faculty of carrying popular conviction. Parliament was dissolved on 
January 2, 1874, the new Ministry swept the country and remained 
in power until 1878. Sir John Macdonald, despite his willingness to 
resign, was maintained in his position as leader of the Conservative 
party and, after a two years interlude of practical rest, went to work 
upon lines which were to once more carry him back to office — this 
time for the rest of his life. 

George Brown, who had been beaten in the elections of 1867 
and had been called to the Senate in 1873, was now practically out of 
politics and so remained — except through the great influence of his 
paper — until the miserable murder in 18S0 which removed his sincere 
and strenuous personality from the life of Canada. Many other 
changes had also taken place in \\\& personnel of politics. Sir Francis 
Hincks, after a brief interval of power as Finance Minister under Sir 
John Macdonald, had retired into private life ; John Sandfield Mac- 
donald had become the first Premier of Ontario, been defeated after a 
few years of economical administration and shortly afterwards had 
passed away ; Oliver Mowat had come down from the Bench in 1S72 
and taken the Premiership of Ontario which he was destined to hold 
for twenty-four years amidst an ever-increasing reputation for shrewd- 
ness and skill in managing men; Joseph Howe had passed away in 
Nova Scotia and Charles Tupper become the undisputed Conserva- 
tive leader of all the Maritime Provinces; Hiram Blanchard, William 
Annand, P. C. Hill, S. H. Holmes, succeeded each other as Premiers 
of Nova Scotia up to the days when John S. D. Thompson and W. S. 
Fielding came to the front ; A. R. Wetmore, George E. King and J. 
J. Fraser came to the surface of affairs in New Brunswick while 



POLITICAL QUESTIONS AND DEVELOPMENT 413 

Wilmot and Tilley and Chandler retired successively to the cool 
shades of Government House at Fredericton ; in far away British 
Columbia J. F. McCreight, Amor de Cosmos, A. C. Elliot, George 
A. Walkcm, Robert Beaven, William Smithe, A. E. B. Davie and 
John Robson succeeded each other as the head of Ministries which it 
would be exceedingly hard to politically define. 

In all the Provinces constructive difficulties and constitutional 
problems were bound to arise, and did arise, from time to time. In 
Ontario they took the form of a boundary question with Manitoba 
which was settled by the Judicial Committee of the Imperial Privy 
Council in favour of the older Province ; of questions of jurisdiction 
over rivers and streams, of the right to prohibit the sale and manu- 
facture of into.xicants, of the power to appoint Queen's Counsel and 
similar subjects. In most of these cases the contention of the Province 
was sustained. In the Maritime Provinces the chief issue thus raised was 
the New Brunswick School question. In April, 1871, the Legislature 
of that Province practically abolishe'd Roman Catholic Separate 
Schools and organized its system upon a non-sectarian basis. The 
minority appealed through the various Courts to the Judicial Com- 
mittee where, finally, the appeal was dismissed. Then they went into 
the political arena and in May, 1872, a stormy debate took place at 
Ottawa without any other result than the positive refusal of the 
Dominion Government to intervene in the matter. 

The most significant of all these earlier controversies, however, 
was the constitutional one created by the dismissal, on March 4,1878, 
of the De Boucherville Ministry in Quebec. The Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor, M. Letellier de St. Just, could not get on with his advisers and, 
therefore, dismissed them while in possession of a majority in the 
Legislature. He called in Henri Gustave Joly, who assumed respon- 
sibility for the action and managed to hold office for over a year. 
The constitutional principle seems to have been met fully by the 



414 POLITICAL QUESTIONS AND DEVELOPMENT 

Governor finding a Premier to shield his action. But here came the 
poHtical issue— a much more prominent feature in such a coup-cC elat. 
LetelHer was a Liberal, his Minister was a Conservative, Joly was a 
Liberal. The Conservatives were aggrieved at the dismissal and 
took the old Liberal ground that it was an infraction of the respon- 
sible government principle under which a Governor is supposed to be 
bound by his advisers so long as they possess a Parliamentary major- 
ity. This was the ground taken by Sir John Macdonald at Ottawa. 
The Liberal leaders there, however, took the position that the Gov- 
ernor had been relieved of responsibility by his new Premier and this 
really seems to be the true constitutional position and not incompati- 
ble with the correctness of the other. The debate was a bitter one 
and M. LetelHer was maintained in his place and his policy. When, 
however, the Conservatives came into power at Ottawa, soon after- 
wards, it was inevitable that some action should be taken and, despite 
the objections of Lord Lome who believed that the office of Lieu- 
tenant-Governor would thus be degraded to the position of a party 
appanage, LetelHer was dismissed. 

Incidentally, this case marked a change in the functions of the 
Governor-General. The Marquess of Lome,* who had succeeded 
Lord Dufferin in 1S7S, in referring the proposed dismissal to the Col- 
onial Office, had been advised in reply that he should follow the sug- 
gestions of his Government. This was, practically, the final step in 
making his position a similar one, in all the relations of Governor- 
General to Cabinet and Parliament, to that of the Sovereign in 
England. Meanwhile, the politics of Canada had been slowly improv- 
ing as the scope of operations and public thought had widened. 
They were still essentially Colonial and rather narrow, but were 
steadily broadening out toward the Imperial development of the 

* Lord Lome became Duke of Argyll in 1900 by (he death of his father. Lord Dufferin, after serving as Viceroy of 
India and in other positions of great importance was created Marquess of Dufferin and Ava. It may also be added that 
l.ord Slsnlcy of Preston, a later Governor-General, became afterwards the 16th Earl o{ Derby. 




THE HON. SIR HECTOR L. LANGEVIN 

K.C.M.G., C.B. 

Conservative Leuder in Duebec, 1H7:MU 



THE HON. SIR J. ADOLPHE CHAPLEAU 

K.C ;...G. 

I,i'_iilen;inl-t iuveriior v'f tiucit . I' J-'.'ii 




THE HON. SIR SAMUEL LEONARD TILLEY 

K.C.M.G., C.B. 

K.lmnce MiiiisUTv<f t."an;ni;v. IsTti-.*^ 



THE HON. GEORGE EULAS FOSTER 

M.A.. D.C.L., M.P. 

Finance Minister of Canada, ISS**-;**! 



POLITICAL QUESTIONS AND DEVIiLOPMENT 417 

succeeding quarter of a century. No doubt the experience of tlie 
leaders in forming the constitution and then bringing it into practical 
and full operation was a great factor in this progress. 

Since Confederation Messrs. Gait and Rose and Hincks, as suc- 
cessive Finance Ministers, had been compelled to evolve a new finan- 
cial system ; to bring together varied threads of conflicting Provincial 
experience ; to create a new and broad fiscal policy suited to several 
Provinces and many diverse interests ; to build up a Dominion 
banking system. It was not an easy task. The country from ocean 
to ocean had also to be considered and studied in its public works, its 
possible public improvements, its vast requirements for transportation 
facilities, its complex and antagonistic railway and waterway systems. 
A Department of Marine and Fisheries, dealing with conditions of 
international import and touching American rivalry on the Atlantic, 
the Pacific and the Great Lakes, had to be established and main- 
tained. Intricate questions of revenue as well as tariff, of relations 
between the Provinces and with the United States, had to be con- 
sidered. Difficult constitutional and administrative points in connec- 
tion with the admission of new Provinces had to be met, the wants of 
the vast areas of the far West satisfied from time to time, the Indians 
looked after and controlled, the whole postal system of half a conti- 
nent organized, or re-organized. 

The first Government of the Dominion had, indeed, no easy 
task and there were not a few great problems, such as the creation of 
the Supreme Court of Canada, which descended to their successors. 
Upon the whole, however, they were successful and had the new 
Ministry of Mr Mackenzie been amenable to public opinion and 
requirements and sentiment, upon issues such as protection and the 
rapid construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway, they would have 
had a splendid opportunity of being also distinguished for construc- 
tive statesmanship. 



CHAPTER XXI 
The National Policv of Protection 

THE story of the rise and fall of tariffs, or the ever-present con- 
troversy between the principles of free trade and protection, 
is not usually considered a subject of absorbing attractiveness. 
Yet, in the case of Canada, the annals of the " N. P.," as it was uni- 
versally called for years, present features of really popular and per- 
manent interest. They include the consideration of important under- 
lying movements connected with the birth and travail of a new coun- 
try and an incipient national sentiment. They were vitally concerned 
with the personal success or failure of a great man and the rise into 
prolonged power of the jjarty which he had been mainly instrumental 
in creating. 

A TURN IN TIIK TIDE OK CANADIAN AKFAIRS 

They marked the turn in the tide from poverty to prosperity, 
from what might be termed national infancy to national boy- 
hood, from dependence upon the United States in fiscal matters to 
comparative independence, from Provincial looseness of tie and sepa- 
ration of interests to genuine co-operation and partnership, from 
smallness of popular view to a wider horizon and greater individual 
enterprise. How far the National Policy was instrumental in this 
undoubted development is a still disputed point and must remain so 
under existing party conditions ; but as to the present necessity for 
a protective tariff, and the inferential necessity for its creation, there 
seems, even now, to be a pretty general assent in all Canadian parties. 

Following Confederation a somewhat peculiar state of affairs 

existed in the new Dominion. There was the shell of a great state, 
41S 



THE NATIONAL J'OLICY OF PROTECTION 419 

the institutions and machinery of a country which stretched in nomi- 
nal union from ocean to ocean and covered over three milhon square 
miles of territory. But the population was thinly scattered over its 
vast area; the progress of national prosperity was somewhat slow; 
the sentiment of Canadian unity was decidedly weak ; the Provinces 
leaned considerably in matters of trade interchange, and demand 
and supply, upon the States to the south of them; railway communi- 
cation between the Pacific and the Great Lakes had not been estab- 
lished and seemed almost too great an undertaking for so youthful a 
people ; and comparatively little exchange of thought or commerce 
as yet passed between the Provinces. 

A CHANGE IN TARIFF CONDITIONS 

The tariff was at first a uniform one of 15 per cent, upon all 
goods coming into the Dominion, and this average reduction of 5 per 
cent, on what had been the tariff of the Canadas, under Mr. Gait's fiscal 
policy, was for a time sufificient to prevent the market being monopo- 
lized by American manufactures, although it was not sufficient to be 
protective in the sense of encouraging home industry. It simply 
enabled Canadian manufacturers to hold their own during the period 
of Sir John Macdonald's first Government from 1867 to 1873. 

The reason for this condition of affairs and for the change which 
began to show itself about 1872 was the simple fact that all the native 
powers of recuperation and productive capacity which the United 
States possessed were required, in the half-dozen years following the 
Civil War, for the supply of its own people and the meeting of new 
conditions North and South, in both agriculture and industry. Dur- 
ing these years the small 15 percent, tariff was enough to prevent 
serious competition with the tiny and still tentative industrial devel- 
opment of Canada. But by the time of the general elections in 
1872 it was an open secret that some increase of duties would soon be 
necessary and, although the storms of the Canadian Pacific "scandal" 



420 THE NATIONAL POLICY OF PROTECTION 

broke ov^er and shattered the Ministry — which had been success- 
ful at the polls — the necessity was accepted by its Liberal successor 
and the tariff was increased under Mr. Mackenzie to i/J/^ percent 
At that point, however, the Government stayed its hand and no 
amount of persuasion, no cloud of discontent upon the horizon, 
growing in shadowy outline as the years passed on, would move the 
Government in the direction of pure protection. American manu- 
facturers, meanwhile, had revived, prospered and then over-produced. 
They had supplied their own market and then turned to find other 
worlds to conquer; and the nearest and most exposed was the Canadian 
field. 

Between 1873 and 1S7S their goods poured over the frontier 
and beat down prices below what the small Canadian firms, with 
their limited production and market and capital, could hope to touch. 
Then, after the local industry had collapsed, prices were again raised 
and the American firm held its captured market in apparently secure 
shape. All over the country this was happening and even the farmer 
began to suffer from the inrush of American wheat and other food- 
stuffs. From every side came demands for a change of policy, but 
Mr. Mackenzie and Sir Richard Cartwright, his Finance Minister, 
were firm in their view that while a tariff might, and must in this case, 
be imposed for revenue and at uniform rates upon all kinds of goods 
coming into the country, it was unwise, retrogressive and injurious 
to single out industries for special protection, or for the Government 
to "spoon-feed" any individual interest in the country. 

Sir John Macdonald, however, was quick to see not only the 
rising sentiment of the people and his own opportunity but, it may 
surely be believed, a possibility of benefiting the community itself. 
With him practice was always superior to theor\- and the practical 
needs of the moment more important than the vagaries of academic 
schools of thought. Nor was he inconsistent, as his opponents have 



THE NATIONAL POLICY OF PROTECTION 421 

frequently claimed. He had supported the protective policy of Gait 
in the old Canadian Assembly of 1858-9 and had spoken in favour of 
helping local industries, at Hamilton in r86i, and elsewhere in other 
years. In 1S76 the issue was coming to a head. A Commission of 
Inquiry into the existing condition of affairs had been appointed and 
under the Chairmanship of IVIr. David Mills presented an academic 
Report admitting the financial stringency and industrial depression 
but condemning the adoption of Protection as a cure on the ground 
that such a system would diminish the consumption of foreign goods, 
would lessen the revenue by $9,000,000, would increase the price 
of home-manufactured goods, would impose a heavy tax on the 
consumer and was, generally, a proposition to relieve distress by the 
re-distribution of property. 

SIR JOHN MACDONALD TAKES UP THE QUESTION 

Sir John Macdonald and the Conservatives accepted the gauntlet 
thus thrown down and had, indeed, anticipated it in the following 
motion presented to the House on March loth by the Tory leader : 

"That this House regrets that His Excellency the Governor-General has not 
been advised to recommend to Parliament a measure for the re-adjustment of the tariff 
which would not only aid in alleviating the stagnation of business but would also afford 
fitting encouragement and protection to the struggling manufactures and industries as 
well as to the agricultural products of the country. " 

The proposal was, of course, voted down by the Government's 
majority, but the issue was clearly presented and, if possible, made 
more so by succeeding Resolutions of which the most important is that 
of March 7, 1877. It was proposed by Sir John and declared that 
" the welfare of Canada requires the adoption of a National Policy 
which, by a judicious re-adjustment of the Tariff, will benefit and 
foster the agricultural, the mining, the manufacturing and other inter- 
ests of the Dominion." 

It was defeated by forty-nine majority, and then Dr. George 
T. Orton proposed a Resolution declaring that the adoption of 

23 



422 THE NATIONAL POLICY OF PROTECTION 

such a policy would retain the people in Canada and lessen the 
growing migration to the United States; would restore prosperity 
to the now struggling industries of the country ; would prevent 
Canada from being any longer a mere sacrifice market for American 
products ; would encourage and develop an active trade between the 
Provinces; and, by moving in the direction of reciprocity of tariffs 
with the United States, would help in eventually procuring reciprocity 
of trade. Upon this motion, which was defeated by 1 14 to 77 votes, 
the ensuing elections were chiefly fought. 

Meanwhile, matters went from bad to worse in a commercial and 
financial sense. Whatever the value of the American market it was 
absolutely closed to Canadian productions in most of the important 
lines while American manufacturers and producers had a full sweep 
of the Dominion. American wheat, rye, barley, Indian corn, wheat- 
flour, oatmeal, coal, salt, wool, pig-iron, iron and steel-rails, bricks 
and flax had free entry into Canada, while similar Canadian products 
enterincr the United States were charsfed hieh duties — from wheat at 
20 cents a bushel to steel-rails at $25 a ton. Home-made products 
in Canada were steadily driven to the wall while the poverty-stricken 
people could no longer afford to import British goods which went 
down in bulk-value from $68,000,000 In 1873, to $37,000,000 in 1878. 
As with the industrial and mercantile interests so with the aorricul- 
tural. In 1S7S the Dominion actually imported $17,909,000 worth of 
flour, grain, animals and other agricultural products from the United 
States in competition with home-grown productions. 

The Conservative battle-cry became one of " Canada for the 
Canadians " and, under all the circumstances, it is not wonderful that 
the slogan attached to the side of Sir John Macdonald much of the 
best and brainiest support in the community. Newspaper men found 
something to discuss in the broad question of protection better than 
many of the small and local issues of the past and keen spirits such 



THE NATIONAL POLICY OF PROTECTION 423 

as John Maclean — who had lon^- been urt^ino" such a poHcy — R. W. 
Phipps, Thomas White, C. H. Mackintosh and Nicholas Flood Davin 
enthusiastically advocated a new and more national system. Even 
Mr. Goldwin Smith — the ever caustic publicist — was stirred with a 
momentary political ambition and, in 1878, is stated to have sought a 
Conservative nomination and did certainly support the proposed 
National Policy. Charles Carroll Colby, afterwards a Minister of 
the Crown, wrote a powerful pamphlet in its support. Mr. D. L. 
McPherson issued a number of similar contributions to the discussion. 
Dr. Tupper, with all the force of his strenuous oratory, joined Sir 
John Macdonald on a myriad platforms and did great service to the 
cause ; while in July, 1878, Mr. S. L. Tilley descended from the 
Lieutenant-Governorship of New Brunswick and contributed his 
fluent, silvery speech and pleasant personality to the issue and the 
support of the Opposition. 

The Government had been also re-inforced by the logical, argu- 
mentative faculty of David Mills and the pleasant, persuasive elo- 
quence of Wilfrid Laurier. Mr. Mackenzie had been strengthened 
in health and reputation by a visit to Scotland and by the splendid 
reception he had been given in his native place as well as by the 
sense and patriotism of his speeches on the soil of his ancestors. 
With Cartwright, Huntington, Mills and others, he went through the 
country in 1877 and 1878 everywhere nailing the fiag of a revenue 
tariff to the mast-head of his party's fate. It was a striking struggle 
in every sense of the word and the sweeping success of Sir John 
Macdonald was not less interesting because of the surprise felt by his 
opponents at the result. Mr. Mackenzie at once resigned and, on 
October 17, 1878, the new Conservative Ministry was formed — one 
which lasted with variations in leadership and fluctuations in member- 
ship until 1896. Sir John Macdonald was, of course. Premier, the 
Hon. James McDonald, afterwards Chief Justice of Nova Scotia, 



4J4 THE NATIONAL POLICY OF PROTECTION 

was Minister of Justice, Sir S. Leonard Tilley * was Minister of 
Finance and retained the post until 1885, Sir Charles Tupper was 
Minister of Railways and Canals and held the position until the same 
date, Sir Hector L. Langevin was Postmaster-General and afterwards, 
for many years. Minister of Public Works. Other members of the 
Government were L. F. R. Masson, Mackenzie Bowcll, J. C. Pope, 
L. F. G. Baby, John O'Connor, Sir Alexander Campbell and R. D. 
Wilmot. 

THE NEW TARIFF 

During the Session of 1879 Parliament dealt with the somewhat 
vague pledges of the " National Policy " platform and, under the 
direction of Sir Leonard Tilley, did it thoroughly. The tariff pre- 
sented in the budget speech of this year was distinctly protective to 
every industry which was deemed capable of being encouraged and, 
from the general principles of the important fiscal changes then 
announced there have, in twenty years, been only two serious depar- 
tures — the iron and steel policy of Sir Charles Tupper and the Pre- 
ferential tarif? of Mr. Fielding. The first of these was an extension 
of the protective principle, the other was a modification of it in form 
without seriously affecting it in detail. Of course, the budget and its 
important fiscal proposals did not pass without strong opposition. 
The Hon. Alexander Mackenzie — soon to be succeeded in the Lib- 
eral leadership by Mr. Edward Blake — moved in amendment on 
April 7th : 

" That while this House is prepared to make ample provision for the require- 
ments of the public service and the maintenance of the public credit it regards the 
scheme now under consideration as calculated to distribute unequally, and therefore 
unjustly, the burdens of taxation ; to divert capital from its national and most profita- 
ble employment ; to benefit special classes at the expense of the whole community ; 
tends towards rendering futile the cosily and persistent efforts of the country to obtain 

* In i877Richftrd J. Cftrrwrighl, Samuel Leonard Tilley, Charles Tupper, William P. Howland and Alexander 
Campbell were kuiglilcj with the iusignia of K. C M. G. . 




SIR SANDFORD FLEMING, K.C.M.G., LL.D. 



SIR JOSEPH HICKSON, KNT. 

General Manager of the Grand Trunk Railway 




SIR WILLIAM E. LOGAN, LL.D., F.R.S. 
First Director of the Geological Survey of Canada 



SIR HUGH ALLAN, KNT. 



THE NATIONAL POLFCY OF PROTECTION 427 

a share in the immense and growing carrying trade of this continent ; and to create an 
antagonism between the commercial policy of the Empire and that of Canada that 
might lead to consequences to be deeply deplored. " 

The Resolution was, of course, defeated on a party vote and by 
a large majority — 136 to 53. From this time, onwards, the attacks of 
the Opposition upon the National Policy were continuous and became 
more and more acrid as the years passed on. Until 1884, however, 
no more clearly defined motions were submitted to the House of 
Commons except in connection with detail duties, such as those on 
coal and breadstuffs and lumber, proposed by Mr. Laurier in 1882, 
and one regarding pig-iron and other kindred products by Mr. Isaac 
Burpee in the same Session. After 1884, the Liberal policy and fiscal 
proposals made Reciprocity with the United States their central theme. 

The story of the National Policy and its results has been told a 
myriad times upon Canadian platforms, from inany standpoints and 
with infinitely varied data. Criticism and censure have been as 
plentifully showered upon it and its makers as have appreciation and 
admiration. To do justice to the subject it should be looked at with 
liberal views and from a wide outlook. The policy is generally limi- 
ted in popular conception to the increase of duties in 1879 fi'C"'''' i?^ 
to an average of about 30 per cent, and to the consequent encourage- 
ment of industrial development through the application of those duties 
to the protection of specified interests. It had, in reality, a far wider 
range. Without the redundant revenues and increased credit which 
followed the Canadian Pacific could not have been completed for 
very many years ; the North-West and British Columbia would have 
remained isolated dependencies leaning upon American support ; 
ocean communication with the Orient would have remained a dream 
and inter-provincial trade an unknown factor. Hence, practically, the 
National Policy covered a very wide field — one far beyond the con- 
ception of it as being a mere matter of increased fiscal duties. 



428 THE NATIONAL POLICY OF PROTECTION 

There can be no dispute as to what followed the tariff changes 
of 1879, though there is much dispute as to the degree of responsi- 
bility. Confidence was restored and enterprise revived. Soup 
kitchens, which had been established for paupers and the unemployed 
in large centres, disappeared and "good times" came as if by magic. 
Giving every credit in this latter respect to the easier circumstances 
of the people in the United States at this period it still seems evi- 
dent that had the tarif? gates remained down, the prosperity on the 
other side of the line could have only meant increased production 
there and larger exports of goods and products to the Canadian 
market. Revival here, would, consequently, have been very slow, if, 
indeed, it had come at all. Leaving probabilities and assumptions 
aside, however, it is clear that a new spirit did develop in the young 
community and that hopelessness and listlessness in business disap- 
peared to a very great extent. Exports grew from $79,323,000 in 
1878 to $121,013,000 in 1896; imports expanded from $93,089,000 to 
$118,011,000; trade with Great Britain grew from $83,089,000 to 
$99,670,000 and with the United States from $73,876,000 to $103,022,- 
000. With France and Germany, with South American countries 
and China and Japan, commerce steadily developed. 

Manufacturing interests increased and improved in a most marked 
manner. Between 1S81 and 1S91, according to the census returns, 
the number of establishments increased by 26,000, the capital invested 
by $189,000,000, the number of employes by 115,000, the wages paid 
by $41,000,000, the value of the manufactured product by $166,000,000. 
The revenue rose from $22,517,000 in 1879 to $38,579,000 in 1S91, 
while between those years $77,000,000 were expended upon railways, 
$22,000,000 upon canals and waterway improvements and $25,000,000 
upon public buildings and public works. Meantime, the debt of the 
country, also, increased from $140,000,000 in 1878 to $253,000,000 in 
1895, and the taxation per head from $4.37 to $5.02. The large 



THE NATIONAL POLICY OF PROTECTION 429 

imports of American farm products were greatly restricted and the 
export of cattle, sheep and provisions to Great Britain grew from a 
practically stationary figure of #7,000,000 in 1879 to $28,045,000 in 
1895. Manitoba and the North-West steadily developed and villages 
grew into cities whilst the trade between the Provinces came to exceed 
$100,000,000 in value. 

Of course, all this admitted expansion was not without corre- 
sponding diminution in certain lines of trade ; suffering from external 
influences such as the McKinley tariff ; ups and downs in financial 
feeling and popular prosperity. But there has never since 1878 been 
any condition even comparable with the state of affairs then. In the 
general elections of 1882 and 1887 and 1891 the chief issue before the 
people was the tariff — though complicated in the latter years by the 
Riel question and the inevitable turmoil of a racial and religious cry. 
Whether the Liberal party in these years was led by Edward Blake, 
or Wilfrid Laurier ; whether it supported a revenue tariff as in 1882, 
incidental protection as in 1887, or unrestricted reciprocity as in 1891; 
the real issue was always the tariff. The National Policy, or some- 
thing else, was the question before the people and on each occasion 
the former won. In 1896, the Manitoba School matter over-shadowed 
everything and the prolonged tariff controversy was allowed to lapse 
into the limbo of forgotten issues. 

A tariff for protection as well as for revenue was then finally 
accepted as settled and the issue of the future came to hinge, not upon 
the time-honoured and world-wide battle between free trade and protec- 
tion, but upon the development and details of an Imperial trade policy 
in which sentiment was to play a prominent part and a compromise 
of hitherto opposing principles prove the only possible settlement. 



CHAPTER XXII 
Construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway 

WHATEVER the effects of the National Policy in an economic 
sense, there can be no doubt that it increased the revenues 
by thirteen million dollars in three years, decreased the busi- 
ness failures from $29,000,000, in 1879, to $5,700,000 in 1881, steadily 
developed inter-provincial trade and mutual interests, and witnessed 
during its first four years of life an increase of $77,000,000 in the 
external commerce of the country. Of course, there were subsidiarj' 
causes for this sudden development of good times, but the people as a 
whole were inclined to credit the National Policy with much of the 
expansion which followed its establishment. 

TWO FACTORS OF INDIVIDUAL AND I'UBLIC SELF-CONFIDENCE 

Two facts are undoubted amidst all the conflicting confusion of 
current fiscal argument. They were really interchangeable and included 
the restoration of public confidence in private and public enterprises 
of a financial character, and the growth of a national sentiment which 
made the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway a possibility. 
Without these two factors of individual and public self-confidence 
neither the revenues, nor the credit, nor the sentiment of the country, 
would have permitted the carrying out of so huge an undertaking. 

Sir John Macdonald had tried to Initiate the enterprise in 1S73 
by means of private companies of capitalists and had failed in the 
midst of an almost obscurlnof cloud of scandal and slander. Mr. 
Mackenzie's Government had endeavoured also to keep the pact 
entered into with British Columbia when that Province joined 
Confederation, In 1872, upon the promise of a railway over the vast 

430 



CONSTRUCTION OF THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY 431 

prairies and sea of mountains wliich lay between it and the rest of 
Canada. He had developed a scheme of gradual and economical 
building, under which contracts were let by the Government for bits 
of road between given bodies of water and over the easier stretches of 
land. There was no continuity of work or completeness of policy. 
The difficult parts of the undertaking, such as the route around the 
north shore of Lake Superior and through the Rocky Mountains, 
were conveniently postponed and the lakes on the route were to be 
used as navigable portions of the line instead of the railway being 
taken around them. When Sir John Macdonald came into power 
again, in 1S7S, he found that solitary lines of railway, scattered here 
and there, were completed, or under way, but were without bond of 
union or any very practical efficiency. 

THE IMPORTANCE OE THIS CONTINENTAL ROUTE 

As soon as other matters permitted, attention was turned to the 
necessity of more rapid and organized action. The public had at 
last grasped to some extent the importance of this continental route 
to the unity and expansion of the Dominion ; British Columbia was 
pressing for the carrying out of Federal pledges ; and the acceptance 
of the new National Policy tariff as presented to Parliament by Sir 
Leonard Tilley in the Session of 1S79 had cleared the political 
path and promised to provide steadily growing revenues to the Gov- 
ernment. Some efforts had been made in the meantime to carry on 
Mackenzie's plan and further small contracts had been actually 
entered into. But, in 1879, the opportunity presented itself for a 
renewal of the old policy of 1873 under stronger and better auspices. 
A small Syndicate of Canadian and American capitalists had been 
latterly operating the St. Paul and Pacific Railway — a line running 
throueh Minnesota to the international border and connecting there 
with the Pembina and Winnipeg branch of the proposed continental 
road. 



432 CONSTRUCT/ON OF THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY 

With these men and some others, includinsr George Stephen, 
Duncan IMcIiitvre and Donald A. Smith, of Montreal, R. B. An<:us, 
of the Bank of Montreal, J. S. Kennedy, of New York, Morton, Rose 
& Company, of London, and James J. Hill, of American railway 
fame, the Government commenced negotiations for the assumption of 
the greater enterprise. Sir Charles Tupper, who was Minister of 
Railways from 1879 to 1S84, impressed his usual energy and force 
upon the matter and, on May 10, 1S79, moved a series of Resolutions 
in the House of Commons embodying the policy of the Government 
and promising 100,000,000 acres of North-West land to any Com- 
pany taking up the work. A contract was finally made with the syndi- 
cate for the building of the line and for the payment by Government 
of $25,000,000 in cash, with a grant of 25,000,000 acres of land in 
alternate lots along the route. On December 13, 1880, SirC. Tupper 
moved the acceptance of the arrangement by Parliament and fought 
the measure through the House in long and able and forceful speeches. 

But this is anticipating the narrative. It had seemed possible in 
1873, after the fall of the Macdonald Government, that the railway 
project might fall with it. The new Government and the Liberal 
party did not, certainly, appear enthusiastic over what they truly felt 
to be the assumption of vast responsibilities. They lacked faith to 
some extent in the future and this is the worst that can be said of 
their attitude and subsequent policy. The project was an enormous 
one for a Government to assume which had only some scattered 
and not wealthy Provinces to depend upon and a population of less 
than 5,000,000 at its back. Moreover, the Liberal party had never 
approved of the pledge toBritish Columbia and would havever)- natur- 
ally been glad of relief from the burden of the now evident obligation. 
Seeing this situation at Ottawa, Lieutenant-Governor Sir I. W. 
Trutch, of British Columbia, had hastened on behalf of his Govern- 
ment to register, in 1S73, ^ protest against further delay. 



CONSTRUCTION OF THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILIVAV 433 

Much correspondence followed and in February, 1874, the Mac- 
kenzie Government decided to send a special envoy to the distant 
end of the Dominion in order to ascertain the exact state of public 
opinion in the Province ; to see if it were possible to arrange condi- 
tions under which the railway might be built and slowly completed 
without reference to the promised ten years of the Confederation 
compact ; to, in short, feel the public pulse as to a change in the terms 
of Union. They selected Mr. (afterwards Sir) J. D. Edgar for the 
mission and armed him with many letters and elaborate instructions. 
On the 9th of March he arrived in Victoria and, eventually, sub- 
mitted proposals which involved the immediate commencement and 
rapid completion by the Dominion of a local railway from Esquimault 
to Nanaimo, on Vancouver Island ; the speedy settlement of the 
route to be followed by the railway on the mainland ; the immediate 
building of a waggon-road through the almost impassable mountains 
and of a telegraph line across the continent ; the expenditure of a 
minimum amount of $1,500,000 annually upon the road, within the 
Rockies, until it was completed. 

FIRST STEPS IN CONSTRUCTION 

The discussion was fruitless, whether because of a lack of 
diplomacy and tact upon Mr. Edgar's part, as one reputable historian 
states,* or because the Provincial Government wanted their full 
pound of fiesh. In June the proposals were withdrawn, the envoy 
recalled and Mr. George A. Walkem, the Premier of British Colum- 
bia, went to London to lay his case before the Colonial Secretary and 
the Imperial authorities. A triangular controversy followed, some of 
it decidedly acrimonious until, finally, all parties agreed to accept the 
Earl of Carnarvon as arbitrator in the affair. His proposed terms of 
settlement were submitted to Lord Dufferin in a despatch dated 
November i 7, 1S74, and may be summed up as follows : 

* Dr. George Stewart. Canada Under the Administration of the Earl of Diijferin. 



434 CONSTKIJCTION OF THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY 

1. The rapid buildiriLj of the Nanaimo-Esquimault Railway. 

2. The pressing of the mainland surveys and the selection of a 
definite route over the mountains with all possible despatch. 

3. The immediate construction of the waggon-road and telegraph 
lines. 

4. The minimum expenditure of $2,000,000 a year upon railway 
works, within the Province, from the moment that the surveys should 
be completed. 

5. The completion of the railway and its readiness for traffic, 
from the Pacific sea-board to the western end of Lake Superior, by 
December 31, 1890. 

Some of the details in this compromise were not verj' acceptable 
to the Dominion Government but they abided by the settlement, as 
arranged, and an Order-in-Council was issued on December iSth 
expressing their adhesion to its terms. Then began the detached 
method of construction already referred to. Naturally, the Conserva- 
tive Opposition had endeavoured to make capital out of the slowness 
of operations. On March 13th, Dr. Tupper moved a long Resolution 
embodying the since generally accepted view of Canada's responsi- 
bility in the matter and urging the Government " to employ the 
available funds of the Dominion " for the completion of the road. 
This was defeated on a party division. In the succeeding year, on 
March 2Sth, Mr. Amor de Cosmos of British Columbia moved a 
lengthy Resolution of censure upon the Government for its slowness 
in carrying out the pledges of the Dominion to his Province. It only 
received seven votes. A motion by Mr. G. W. Ross, afterwards 
Prime Minister of Ontario, declaring that the expenditure should 
only be such as " the resources of the country will permit without 
increasino- the existincr rates of taxation " was carried and an amend- 
ment proposed on behalf of the Opposition by Mr. J. Burr Plumb, 
and stating that the country was pledged to the undertaking, that the 




i- - 

i: 

M — 
< < 

1 z 

o - 




CO 3 



o ::; 



CONSTRUCTrON OF THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAIIAVAY 437 

surveys should be energetically pressed and the construction of the 
road prosecuted with rapidity, was voted down. On April 21, 1877, 
Dr. Tupper presented a motion of censure upon the Government 
for their genera! railway policy. It was negatived by a party vote. 

During the succeeding year the Conservative party came into 
power and on May 10, 1879, the new Minister of Railways and 
Canals — Sir Charles Tupper — moved a lengthy Resolution detailing 
the engagement of Canada to build the Canadian Pacific Line ; its 
importance as "a great Imperial highway across the continent of 
America entirely on British soil ; " its desirability as providing a route 
for trade and commerce to China, Japan and the far East ; and set- 
ting forth an elaborate plan for construction under the auspices of the 
Government and by means, chiefly, of a grant of 100,000,000 acres of 
North-West lands. Mr. Mackenzie promptly moved an amendment 
re-capitulating Liberal policy and denouncing any further increase in 
taxation. The original motion, of course, carried. During the ensu- 
ing Session of 1880 Mr. Edward Blake proposed a much more drastic 
Resolution against the Government's railway policy and asked the 
House, without success, to declare that " the public interests require 
that the work of constructing the Pacific Railway in British Columbia 
be postponed." 

Meanwhile, however, the Canadian Pacific Syndicate was formed 
as already described and, after prolonged negotiation arrangements 
were entered into with the Government. In accordance with this 
agreement Sir Charles Tupper moved in the House, on December 
13, 1880, that it was expedient to grant 25,000,000 acres of land 
and a subsidy of $25,000,000 cash, for the construction of the road. 
Prolonged debates followed in which Messrs. Blake, CartwricTht 
and Mills were pitted against Sir Charles with results which did 
not reflect discredit upon the forceful Minister of Railways. Many 
amendments were proposed and rejected — notably one by .Sir Richard 



43« CONST RUCTION OF THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY 

Cartwright declaring that the whole contract was objectionable and 
the consideration excessive. These amendments were almost innu- 
merable and were proposed, among others, by Messrs. Laurier, Mills, 
Anglin, F. \V. Borden, Paterson, Charlton, Rinfret, G. W. Ross. M. C. 
Cameron, P. B. Casgrain, and George E. Casey. All were antago- 
nistic and all were defeated on strict party lines. The discussions 
were exceedingly keen and, at times, fierce. 

By the terms of the contract, as finally passed in the Session of 
1881, the Syndicate undertook to form a Company and build the road 
to the Pacific within ten years and afterwards to operate it, for the 
consideration in lands and money as above. They were, of course, to 
have the right of way through public lands and the necessary ground 
for stations, docks, etc. Steel rails, telegraph wire and other articles 
for use were to be duty free and the sections of railway already built 
• — from Lake Superior to Winnipeg, from Emerson to St. Boniface 
and from Burrard's Inlet to Savona's Ferry — were to be handed over 
by the Government to the Company. All the Company's property 
connected with the road and its capital stock were to be free of taxa- 
tion. The Government also undertook that no line south of the 
railway should be chartered by the Dominion, or by any Province 
created by it, except in a southerly direction. This last provision 
afterwards became famous as the " monopoly clause " and the cause 
of much excited controversy. 

FINANCIAL IIISTORV OF THE R.MLW.W 

The work before the new Company was no easy undertaking. 
The difficulties of construction were enormous ; the engineering skill 
needed to overcome them now seems to have been little short of the 
marvellous ; the costliness of many portions of the line was as great 
as the obstacles of nature were threatening. It required gigantic 
faith to enter upon the plan of construction ; immense energy and 
financial skill to carry it through. Nor were conditions very favourable 



COXSTRUCTION OF THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAfL IV A V 439 

to the large monetary operations which were necessary. The initial 
capital of the Company was #5,000,000, issued at par, and this was 
increased in 1SS2 to $25,000,000 — the new stock being allotted to 
existing shareholders at 25 per cent, of par. A little later it was 
increased to 5^100,000,000 and $40,000,000 of this was sold at an aver- 
age of 52 per cent., while the balance was deposited with the Domin- 
ion Government. In 1S85, $35,000,000 of this latter amount was 
cancelled. The Company also issued $25,000,000 of first-mortgage 
5 per cent. 50 year land-grant bonds, of which the greater part was 
afterwards redeemed. 

This summary of financial operations gives no idea, however, of 
the struggles and vicissitudes, the sacrifices and possible ruin, which 
were faced by the men in control of the Company and the project dur- 
ing these years. In London, where most of the money had to be 
obtained, a lukewarm feeling existed toward the enterprise. Moneyed 
men were influenced by the natural hostility of the Grand Trunk 
Railway toward this new and formidable competitor ; by the tremend- 
ous difficulties which nature had placed in its path ; and by the double 
fact of so many millions of English capital having been already 
thrown away in the Grand Trunk and of more millions being menaced 
by the success of any new rival. It was, of course, fully expected 
and understood that the railway could not remain a western one, but 
would seek eastern connections and make itself, in time, a truly conti- 
nental line. "To write the history of the battle," says one writer,* 
"which the Directors of the Canadian Pacific Railway had to fight in 
England at the outset would require several volumes." 

Distrust and fear and political enmity in Canada also exercised 
a powerful indirect effect upon the credit of the Company abroad. 
The Opposition in Parliament denounced both policy and project over 
and over again and with ever-increasing energy. A part of the 

• Alexander Begg, of Winnipeg, in h\s History of Manitoba. 



440 CONSTRUCTION OF THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY 

Canadian press followed suit and the platforms of the country in the 
elections of 1882 rang the changes of a most persistent pessimism 
regarding the whole enterprise. Coupled with the already instinctive 
hostility of vested interests this sort of thing had a natural effect in 
the money market and upon the resources of the Company. They 
went on vigorously and rapidly, however, with the construction and in 
the autumn of 1881 Mr. (afterwards Sir) William C. Van Home 
became General Manager. In 1883, the Directorate was composed of 
Messrs. George Stephen, R. B. Angus, W. C. Van Home and Donald 
A. Smith, representative of Canadian interests, and Messrs. John 
Turnbull, H. Stafford Northcote (now Lord Northcote) C. D. Rose, 
Baron J. de Reinach, R. V. Martinson and \V. L. Scott, representa- 
tive of Ensflish or foreign interests. 

During this year and the early part of 18S4 a crisis in the affairs 
of the Company developed. Their money grant from the Dominion 
had been expended, the proceeds of stock sales had gone into con- 
struction, the private resources of some of the Canadians concerned 
— notably George Stephen and Donald A. Smith — had been pledged, 
the Bank of Montreal itself had become deeply concerned. More 
money was absolutely necessary and more money seemed impossible 
to obtain. The influence of rivals and the prolonged teachings of 
political pessimism were having their inevitable innings. Much of 
the railway was built and money should have been comparatively 
easy to raise at this stage of construction ; but such was not the case. 
London, under the various influences described, would not inve.st, 
and the success of the whole enterprise, the financial credit of Canada, 
the future prosperity of the Dominion, hung in the balance. 

The Company approached the Government for a loan of $22,- 
500,000 and the Government hesitated. They naturally feared the 
fresh responsibility ; they knew that public opinion had been greatly 
worked up against further financial connection with the Company; 



CONSTRUCTION OF THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILU^AV 441 

they were doubtful of their own supporters in the House. What 
followed is one of those secrets of later Canadian history not yft 
known to the public and only known in full to a very few. Opinion 
in the Cabinet was divided and had it not been for the persistent 
efforts of Sir Frank Smith, backed up by the ever-cheerful optimism 
of Sir John Macdonald and the sturdy determination of Sir Charles 
Tupper, it is hard to say what the result might have been. Eventu- 
ally a re-arrangement was made. The loan was granted — and repaid 
within two years — upon the transfer to the Government of the land- 
grants and of certain branch lines which had been built or purchased 
by the Company in Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba. The Company 
stripped themselves of everything in order to proceed with and com- 
plete the work and In doing so saved the railway from collapse, them- 
selves from ruin and the country from a set-back which would have 
retarded Its prosperity and growth by quarter of a century. 

The agreement passed through Parliament, after bitter opposi- 
tion, and its passage marked the beginning of the end. The conti- 
nental railway was very soon a fact and, on June 28, 1886, a through 
passenger service between Montreal and Vancouver was inaugurated. 
Meanwhile, a steamship line had been established on Lakes Huron 
and Superior, a telegraph service completed along the line of railway 
and immense elevators for the storage of grain built at Port Arthur, 
Fort William and Montreal. 

THE GREATNESS OF THE UNDERTAKING 

The difficulties offered by nature to the actual construction of 
this trans-continental line were tremendous ; the scenery along the 
route infinitely grand and varied. The railway had been carried 
around, or through, the massive cliffs of red granite which nature has 
thrown into innumerable shapes and marvellous conformations along 
the northern shores of Lake Superior. Rugged and seamed with 
trees, or smooth and bare in straiglit up and down masses of rock, 

24 



442 CONSTRUCriON OF THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAIL WA Y 

these great walls now guarded one side of the thin line of rail which 
stamped the course of civilized progress through these vast wilds of 
rock and forest and water. Tunnels and immense trestle-bridges, 
prolonged blasting operations and the scientific precision of engineer- 
ing skill, had opened up in this case a country of the greatest mineral 
resources. On through the forests and uplands and myriad lakes and 
rivers of the region between Port Arthur and Winnipeg, over the 
thousand miles of prairie to the foot of the Rockies, the road had been 
run. Then, for days of rapid travel, it had worked its way amid the 
cloud-crowned, snow-capped peaks of the greatest of the world's 
mountain ranges.* 

Green, grey, solemn and massive, these vast phenomena of nature 
now looked down upon, or were penetrated by, that little line of rail 
which marked the conquest of the inanimate by the animate. Down 
the deepest of grades and up the sides of the most forbidding of lofty 
mountains, with their crests encircled by everlasting storms and cap- 
ped with eternal snows, the railway wound its path through tunnels 
and over trestle-bridges ; along the banks of rushing rivers and 
wildly struggling mountain torrents ; through the vast valley of the 
Kicking Horse and over huge canyons and chasms; through the 
marvellous scenery of Roger's Pass and down the sides of the roaring 
Fraser. Neither Canada nor its great railway can, indeed, be under- 
stood or appreciated — in either grandeur of scenery or difficulty of 
construction — until these mountains of British Columbia are pictured 
before the eye of the mind. 

Lines of mountain peaks rise out of great valleys, in which a 
large river at times looks to the traveller in the train like a silver 
thread, and tower up into the clouds. Here and there huge glaciers 
are visible and the alternations of view afiforded by the lofty summits 

• Crossing these r.inRcs in 1891 the writer met Sir Kdwiii Arnold, the author of Thf Ltgitt of Asia, who loIJ him 
that, in his opinion, they exceeded in grandeur the Himalayas, the Alps, or the Andes— all of which he had seen. 



CONSTRUCTfO.Y OF THE CANADIAN PACIFIC A'. ULIVAV 443 

and sides of the principal peaks, such as those of the Hermit, or 
Mount Stephen, or Mount Macdonald, are simply superb. Sunset, 
sunrise or a snow-storm produce the most beautiful effects in colour- 
ing- at the hands of nature — the greatest master of all art. Green 
and brown, purple and black, blue and white, are developed accord- 
ing to the weather and the time of day and sometimes all at once. 
Intensely dark and sombre and gloomy is the scene, or beautiful in 
the most varied, fantastic and splendid forms. The transformations 
are never-ending. Here, perhaps, will be visible upon a dark moun- 
tain side lines of low trees, or shrubs, scattered amidst the forests of 
pine and looking like rivers of grass ; there silvery streaks of snow. 
Here, a huge glacier of eternal ice ; there something looking like a 
vast pile of coral heaped in gigantic shapes by some demoniac or fan- 
tastic god of ancient mythology. Everywhere are the banks of rush- 
ing rivers — the Bow, the Kicking-Horse, the Columbia, the Bea- 
ver, the Illicilliwaet, the Eagle, the Thompson, or the magnificent 
Eraser. 

Running down the mountain sides, skipping in merry cascades 
and myriad colours across or beside the railway, tearing wildly down 
steep inclines, rushing over huge rocks or precipices, roaring between 
massive stone-walls — turbulent or peaceful, grand or beautiful — these 
rivers and streams present a thousand varied charms. The scenery 
along the Eraser is simply matchless. In many places the great river 
is forced between cliffs, or vertical walls of rock and foams and roars 
like some imprisoned giant of nature fighting to be free. The rail- 
way is often cut into the cliffs hundreds of feet above and tunnels 
pierced through solid rock follow each other in rapid succession. 
After passing Yale the mountains moderate in size and grandeur, the 
Rockies and the Selkirks gradually become things of the past — linger- 
ing forever in the memories of the traveller — and the beautiful 
valleys and villages and fruit-farms of the coast region come into view. 



444 CONSTRUCTION OF THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY 

Such are some of the scenes and obstacles which marked the 
labours of construction and stamped the event with elements of 
greatness which led the London Times to delare * that the concep- 
tion of this trans-continental line was " a magnificent act of faith on 
the part of the Canadian Dominion " and that the small population 
of the country spread, as it was, over so vast a territory, had " con- 
ceived and executed within a few years a work which a generation 
ago might well have appalled the wealthiest and most powerful of 
nations." With the completion of the railway, four years before the 
original contract had called for it, there ended the prolonged political 
fight over its construction. In the words of Mr. Blake at Vancouver 
on April 30, 1891 : "When the railway was built and finished I felt, 
myself, that it was useless to continue the controversy longer in defer- 
ence to the whole country which Canada had risked so much to 
retain." 

LATER POLICY OF THE COMPAXV 

Much more remained to be done, however, before the through 
line which had required so much of persistence, pluck and financial 
and engineering skill to construct, could be a dividend-paying concern. 
One of the first steps was to gradually acquire a number of smaller 
lines for the purpose of feeding the main railwa}' or facilitating its 
trans-continental business. The Canada Central, the North Shore 
Line, the New Brunswick Railway system, the Montreal and Ottawa, 
the Atlantic and North-West, the Credit Valley, the Toronto, Grey 
and Bruce, the St. Lawrence and Ottawa, the Sudbury and Sault Ste 
Marie, the Manitoba and South-Western, the Calgary and Edmon- 
ton, the Minneapolis and St. Paul, and a score of others were amal- 
gamated or acquired in various ways until the total mileage had 
become over 7,000. Larger and better grain elevators were built ; 
the sleepers on the entire line were made or owned by the Company 

* Editorial, June 30, 1886. 




SIR J. WILLIAM DAWSON, C.B., F.R.S. PRINCIPAL GEORGE M. GRANT, D.D., LL.D. 





LOUIS H. FRE'CHETTE, C.M.G., D.C.L., LL.D. NICHOLAS FLOOD DAVIN, Q.C., M.P. 



CONSTRUCTION OF THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY 447 

itself ; splendid hotels were erected at Vancouver, Banff, Montreal, 
Quebec and other places ; handsome Clyde-built steamers were put 
on the Great Lakes ; the Empress Line of steamers was placed 
on the Pacific and run from Vancouver to Hong-Kong; another 
and similar Line was established between Vancouver and Australian 
ports. 

All this was accomplished within a few years, though not without 
further difficulties of a political and financial nature. The latter were 
now easily overcome ; the former included the prolonged struggle in 
Manitoba for the freedom of that Province from the so-called monop- 
oly clause in the original contract. From i8So to 1887 the agita- 
tion, in this connection, was continuous and the demand of Manitoba 
to be allowed to build its own railways as it liked was as energetic as the 
free air of the Western prairies could make it. The original protests 
against the clause had been forcible and the claim that the subsequent 
Dominion policy of disallowing any local railway charters which con- 
flicted with it was crippling Provincial development and compelling 
the endurance of excessive rates, contained a sufficient element of 
fact to lend popularity to the continued protests. At the same time, 
the Dominion Government was bound by their arrangement and it had 
not really been an unfair one in the beginning. 

The Company had a right in view of their difficulties, the Govern- 
ment a right in view of their responsibilities, to prevent injurious com- 
petition to the new railway for a given period. But young communi- 
ties are like young men — sometimes hot-headed and not always 
appreciative of past obligations and benefits. Hence the controversy 
reached an acute stage, in 1887, over the Dominion disallowance of 
the Red River Valley charter ; and the Provincial and Federal offi- 
cials almost came to blows at the scene of construction. Finally, 
INIr. John Norquay, the Premier, accompanied by Mr. Joseph Martin, 
went to Ottawa and an arrangement was come to by which the 



448 CONSTRUCTION OF THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY 

"monopoly clauses " were waived by the Company in return for a 
fifty-year Dominion guarantee of interest on a $15,000,000 issue of 
■^Yz per cent, bonds secured upon the Company's unsold lands — about 
1 5,000,000 acres. 

Meanwhile, the men who made the railway had become million- 
aires, as they deserved to be. Their energy had been herculean ; 
their enterprise as creditable as their financial ability had been keen. 
They had risked everything, in reputation and personal resource, 
upon what had been declared to be a natural, geographical and finan- 
cial impossibility and they merited high rewards. Success meant, 
also, the knitting together of the Dominion, the development of 
external trade, the peopling of the North-West, the growth of villa- 
ges into towns and towns into cities, the forming of a new bond of 
Imperial unity. Mr. Stephen was created a Baronet of the United 
Kingdom by the Queen in 1888, and became Lord Mount Stephen in 
1 89 1. Mr. Donald A. Smith was created a K. C. M. G. in 1SS6, a 
G. C. M. G. in 1896 and a Peer of the realm in the succeeding year 
as Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal. Mr. Van Home became 
President of the Railway in 1888 and a K. C. M. G. was very justly 
conferred upon him six years afterwards. Sir Charles Tupper who, 
in Parliament and out of it, had battled so vigorously and well for the 
great enterprise, became not only stronger in reputation through his 
exertions and successful advocacy but was decorated with the G. C. 
M. G. in 1886 and created a Baronet two years later. Thus, out of 
strenuous conflict, political confusion and financial crisis the railway 
had been created and developed until it had become a power for good 
in many things ; a power, also, for the advancement at times of selfish 
ends; a factor always, in Canadian progress and Imperial strength, 
which all the world has been compelled to recognize. 



CHAPTER XXIII 
The North-west and the RebelHon of 1885 

IT is interesting and instructive to note how often in history good 
appears to come out of evil. Nowhere is this resuk more fre- 
quently seen than in the ultimate consequences of war — whether 
the struggle be great or small. Certainly, little but evil could be 
seen in the year 1885 in an uprising of the Half-breeds and Indians 
upon the vast prairies of the North-West, and with all the possibilities 
of pillage and massacre which such a situation presented. Yet out of 
the event came an exhibition of united sentiment amongst the people of 
Canada's scattered Provinces which had not been conceived of ; while the 
spectacle of volunteers, from Halifax to the far West, fighting side by 
side on behalf of the Dominion, crystalized what might have been a 
passing enthusiasm into a permanent and growing Canadianism. 

CAUSES OF THE INSURRECTION 

The causes of the trouble were nominally numerous ; the real 
cause was the dominance of one restless, unscrupulous, flighty charac- 
ter amongst a restless race of irresponsible and ignorant men. After 
the stirring times at Fort Garry, in 1870, Louis Riel had not found 
his enforced residence in the Western States very pleasant, and had 
drifted back, been elected to a seat in Parliament from a Half-breed 
constituency, and, after expulsion from the House, had once more 
been compelled to disappear from public view. But he kept up 
his connection with the Half-breeds and maintained his reputation as 
a sort of hero and leader amongst the hunters of the plain as he 
had once done amongst the peasantry around Fort Garry, now the 
Winnipeg of a new era. 

449 



450 THE NORTH-WEST AND THE REBELLION OF 1885 

In 1 884, after the completion of his period of banishment, he reap- 
peared for a time, and seemed willing to live quietly and peaceably. 
The suspicions of the authorities at Ottawa were, in fact, lulled very 
largely to rest, although they were actually engaged in some measure of 
controversy with the Half-breed population.- There were several 
reasons for discontent on the part of the latter and the principal one was 
probably the advance of the white man's civilization into wide regions 
hitherto sacred to the gun of the adventurous sportsman, the wiles of 
the trader and trapper, and the wild, free open life of the Half-breed 
hunter. The whistle of the locomotive was beine heard in the land, 
and the buffalo, as a result of utterly reckless shooting and killing, 
was disappearing from the region in which he had become the verita- 
ble staff of life to both Indian and Half-breed. 

DISAPrOINTEl) WHITE SETTLERS 

Moreover, there were disappointed white settlers scattered over 
the country to the far north where it had at first been expected the 
Canadian Pacific would be built and their fortunes easily made, 
while there was some degree of anger among the Half-breeds, 
or Metis, of the Territories owing to certain land regulations of the 
Dominion Government. They desired to be placed in the same posi- 
tion as the Manitoba Half-breeds who were each entitled to 240 acres 
and a patent of ownership. They opposed the Government method of 
survevingf and sfrantingr lands and claimed the riirht to follow the im- 
memorial custom of the French Jiabiiajits and to locate their settle- 
ments upon the river banks in farms of long, thin strips of soil 
stretching away from the river frontage. 

In September, 1884. a meeting of Metis, was held at St. Laurent 
(a settlment on the Saskatchewan) and a Bill of Rights, or petition 
of grievances, was prepared which asked for the subdivision of the 
North-West Territories into Provinces and equality of personal treat- 
ment with the Manitoba Metis ; for patents to be granted settlers in 



THE NORTH-WEST AND THE REBELLION OF 1885 451 

actual possession of land ; for the sale of 500,000 acres of Dominion 
lands and the expending of the proceeds upon Half-breed schools, 
hospitals and similar institutions, and upon seed-grain and imple- 
ments for the poorer persons in their settlements ; for the reservation 
of a hundred townships of swamp lands for distribution amongst Half- 
breed children during the next 120 years; for the maintenance of 
local institutions ; and for the making of better provision for their 
Indian friends, neighbours and relations. 

The Government, meantime, had appointed a Commission to 
investigate the Half-breed claims and this action seems to show that 
whatever there had been of slowness in taking up the subject there 
was no serious indifference to the needs of this great part of the 
North-West population and that a little patience would have brought 
matters out all right. It was also stated by the Dominion authori- 
ties, in reference to the two chief grievances complained of, that it 
was actually in the power of any Half-breed properly entitled to it to 
obtain a patent for his farm by the ordinary legal process and that the 
claims put forward for a settlement similar to the Manitoba one were 
made by the very men who had been already settled with in 1870. 
However, Riel wanted a rising and any peg in the way of complaints 
was sufficient to hang his purpose on. It is stated that he had the 
advice and moral assistance — though not the armed help — of sundry 
characters who were neither Half-breeds nor Indians and who, no 
doubt, aided in that process of self-deception in which he had already 
proven himself an adept. Disappointed white contractors, disap- 
pointed white land-sharks, disappointed white farmers, in a few cases, 
had something to do with the trouble. They had nothing to lose in 
the disturbances which were sure to follow and which men of a pessi- 
mistic turn of mind had prophesied long before the event. 

On March 22, 1885, the Government received word that the 
almost inaudible mutterings of suppressed sedition had broken into 



452 THE NORTH-WEST AND THE REBELLION OF 1885 

actual violence and that Kiel, with forty men, had seized the mail- 
bags and courier's horses at a place called Duck Lake. This point 
was not far from Prince Albert and Fort Carlton, where there were 
small posts of North-West Mounted Police, and was in the region 
about half-way between two large Indian reserves — with several Half- 
breed villages not far off. It was some 300 miles from the line of 
the Canadian Pacific. The moment was an anxious one. Scattered 
on isolated farms, or ranches, or in tiny settlements throughout the 
vast extent of the Territories were many white people. Around them 
and amongst them were not only wandering Half-breed hunters and 
occasional Metis villages, but thousands of Indian tribes. If the latter 
rose in arms the slaughter and suffering of the white population would 
be very great. The 500 Mounted Police, located in small detachments 
at points distant from one another, would have been of little use in 
saving lives under any general rising. 

MEASURES TAKEN TO SUPPRESS THE REBELLION 

The Government's action was prompt. The day after the news 
had reached them of Riel's initial step the Commander of the Militia 
was travelling to Winnipeg after a long interview with Mr. A. P. 
Caron, the Minister of Militia and Defence ; and in a few days 3.300 
officers and men had been called out for active service and were on 
their way to the North-West. With some 1,600 officers and men 
who turned out from Manitoba and the Territories, and including the 
Mounted Police, the total force under General Middleton, therefore, 
presently amounted to over 5,400 men.* Many more thousands 
wanted to go and the news which soon came that, on March 2Sth, 
Major Crozier, with 100 men of the Mounted Police and Prince 
Albert Volunteers, had come into collision with Riel at Duck Lake 
and been compelled to retire, leaving his dead on the field, fairly 
electrified the Dominion with indignation. 



• The oHicial figures are 5,450. 



THE KORTH-WUST AND THE REBELLION OF 1885 453 

The best reeiments of the militia and the most of the small rejru- 
lar, or permanent, force of Canada were, meanwhile, being sent to the 
front. The Canadian Permanent Artillery with its Quebec and 
Kingston Batteries ; the Queen's Own and Royal Grenadiers of 
Toronto under command of Lieutenant-Colonel W. D. Otter ; the 
Midland Battalion, a splendid mixed regiment under Lieutenant- 
Colonel A. T. H. Williams, M. P.; the York and Simcoe Battalion 
under Lieutenant-Colonel W. E. O'Brien, M. P.; the Governor-Gen- 
eral's Body Guard of Toronto under Lieutenant-Colonel G. T. Deni- 
son ; the 65th and 9th Battalions of Montreal (French-Canadian) 
under Lieutenant-Colonels Ouimet and Amyot respectively ; the 
Halifax Provisional Battalion under Lieutenant-Colonel Bremner; the 
Montreal Garrison Artillery under Lieutenant-Colonel W. R. Oswald; 
the Infantry School Corps of Toronto, the Governor-General's Foot 
Guards of Ottawa, the 7th Battalion of London, and the Cavalry 
School Corps of Quebec ; were the principal regiments, or in a few 
cases, portions of regiments, which went with all haste to the seat of 
trouble. 

In Manitoba and the Territories some very useful troops were 
accepted for immediate service. Winnipeg contributed a Field Bat- 
tery, a Cavalry Troop, a Light Infantry Battalion under Lieutenant. 
Colonel Osborne Smith, the 90th Rifles under Lieutenant-Colonel 
McKeand and the Winnipeg Infantry Battalion under Lieutenant- 
Colonel Thomas Scott, M. P. From the Territories came Boulton's 
Scouts, a gallant little mounted body of a hundred men under Major 
(afterwards Senator). C. A. Boulton, the D. L. S. Scouts of Qu'Ap- 
pelle, the Moose Mountain Scouts, the Rocky Mountain Rangers 
of Calgary, French's Scouts of the Territories, and the Battleford 
Rifle Company. 

The troops from Ontario and Quebec and Nova Scotia had 
a weary and dreary time in crossing the great gaps which still 



454 THIi NORin-n'IiST AND THE REBELLION OF 1885 

existed in the Canadian Pacific to the east of Port Arthur. The 
United States Government would not permit an armed force to pass 
over its territory by train so that, as in the previous rising of 1870, 
much hardship and even suffering had to be endured. Let an extract 
from the official Report of Lieutenant-Colonel C. E. Montizambert, 
of the Artillery, picture the trying troubles of this period : 

" About 400 miles * •■= '-^ had to be passed by a constantly varying process 
of embarking and disemljarking guns and stores from flat cars to country team sleighs 
and vice versa. There were sixteen operations of this nature in cold weather and deep 
snow. On starting from the west end of the track on the night of the 30th of March 
the roads were found so bad that it took the guns seventeen hours to 'do the distance 
(30 miles) to Magpie Camp. On from there to the east end of the track by team 
sleighs and marching 23 miles furth'.:r on ; on flat cars, uncovered and open, with the 
X\\Qxvi\ovc^^\.tx ^\. fifty degrees below ZC7-0. Huron Bay, Port Munro, McKellar's Bay, 
Jackfish, Isbister, McKay's Harbour, were passed by alternate flat cars on construction 
tracks ; and, teaming in fearful weather round the north shore of Lake Superior, 
Nipegon was reached on the evening of the 3rd April. The men had had no sleep 
for four nights. ' ' 

But these and other hardships of the campaign were borne in a 
surprisingly cheerful spirit by men who, in many cases, had never 
known what privation meant and had lived in luxurious homes or, at 
the least, amid surroundings of considerable comfort. All classes 
were to be found amongst the troops. College graduates, delicate- 
looking clerks, sturdy farmers' sons, men of independent means and 
position — all actuated with a common desire to suppress insurrection 
upon Canadian soil and to protect the hearths and homes of Canadian 
citizens. As indicated in Colonel Montizambert's statement the time 
of the year was most unsuited for active campaigning. Around the 
northern shores of Lake Superior the cold was intense and further 
west the raw chill of the early spring-time permeated everything, even 
when the actual cold was not severe. Transport was necessarily 
insufficient in a force which had been called out, equipped and 




BATTLE OF BATOCHE, NORTHWEST REBELLION OF 1885 




BATTLE OF CUT KNIFE HILL. NORTHWEST REBELLION OF l88s 



THE NORTH-WEST AND THE REBELLION OF ZSS3 457 

marched, or carried 1,000 miles in a few days. Fortunately, the Hud- 
son's Bay Company, with its vast resources and knowledge of the 
country, rendered splendid assistance under the management of Major 
Bedson. the General's chief transport officer. 

No better commander for this gallant little army of volunteers 
than Major-General F. D. Middleton could have been obtained. 
With a record of brave service in Australia, in New Zealand, and in 
India during the Mutiny — when he was strongly recommended for a 
V. C., but was debarred from its receipt by the technical fact of his 
having been on the General's personal staff — and of organizing work 
at Malta, Gibraltar and Sandhurst, he was above the desire to obtain 
victory by the sacrifice of his men, or to make a rash effort at reputa- 
tion by too great haste in operations. He was a bluff, kindly, cautious 
and gallant officer who inspired his troops with confidence and won 
from most of his officers a measure of personal regard. He shared 
fully in every hardship and privation of the men, though at that time 
so well advanced in years as to make an arduous campaign a just 
matter for care and consideration. 

THE PLAN OF CAMPAIGN 

The march across the great expanses of wintry plain and frozen 
.prairie from the railway to the seat of trouble was, indeed, a painful 
one to officers and men alike. Encrineered roads there were none. 
Lord Melgund (now Earl of Minto and Governor-General of Canada), 
who was General Middleton's Chief of Staff, has described the cold 
as at times intense, the tent-pegs as being frozen into the ground, 
the boots of those who were riding as frozen to their stirrup irons, 
the men as marching twenty miles a day through perpetual high 
winds, cold rains and occasional blizzards. 

The campaign seems to have been skillfully planned. The Gen- 
eral had to cover and protect a vast extent of country with a few 
troops. He had to arrange his men so as to over-awe large reserves 



4S8 THE NORTH-WEST AND THE REBELLION OF 1885 

of Indians scattered through the Territories and thus prevent a gen- 
eral rising, while at the same time relieving Battleford, which was 
threatened, and attacking Riel and his clever lieutenant, Gabriel 
Dumont, in their headquarters at Batoche. Distances were tremen- 
dous and difficulties of transport and supply equally great. He 
divided his force into three Columns with the Canadian Pacific Rail- 
way at, or near, Ou' Appelle, Swift Current and Calgary as the gen- 
eral base. The Column from Ou'Appelle to Batoche was commanded 
by the General in person and was made up of " A." Battery, Quebec, 
the Winnipeg 90th Battalion, the Winnipeg Field Battery, the Royal 
Grenadiers, Boulton's and French's Scouts, part of the Midland Bat- 
talion and the Intelligence Corps — 1078 men altogether. 

The second Column, from Swift Current to Battleford, was under 
the command of Lieutenant-Colonel W. D. Otter and was composed 
of the " B." Battery of Kingston, the Queen's Own, part of the Gov- 
ernor-General's Foot Guards, and other corps which made up a total 
of 543 men. It had been originally intended that this Column should 
join General Middleton at Clark's Crossing, on the South Saskatche- 
wan, and march with him on Batoche, but it was diverted to Battle- 
ford on account of the alarming reports regarding the situation in 
that vicinity. The third Column, which had to make a long detour 
by way of Edmonton, before meeting the other Columns somewhere 
on the North Saskatchewan, was commanded by a veteran officer who 
had spent many years in Canada at military organization work of 
various kinds — Major-General T. Bland Strange. His command was 
made up chiefly of the 65th Battalion and the Winnipeg Provisional 
Battalion. With some Scouts and Mounted Police he had 656 men 
altogether. Scattered along the line of railway at various defensive 
or strategic points were portions of the regiments mentioned. The 
Governor-General's Body Guard was at Humboldt, the Halifax men 
were at Moose Jaw and Medicine Hat, the York and Simcoe Battalion 



THE NORTH-WEST AND THE REBELLION OF 1S85 459 

was at Fort Ou' Appelle, and other detachments, as the campaign 
progressed, were at Clark's Crossing, Touchwood, Calgary, F"ort 
McLeod and Cypress Hills. The base for the transport of supplies was 
placed at Swift Current, with Major-General J. Wimburn Laurie, an 
experienced officer and a member of the Dominion Parliament, in 
charge. 

Everything was done quickly and, indeed, the speed of operations 
seems to have been the most remarkable feature of the campaign as 
it was, probably, the salvation of many helpless settlers and the cause 
of its short duration. Middleton's Column started on April 6th — 
eleven days after the first shot had been fired at Duck Lake, a dis- 
tance of 1700 miles from Montreal — for a march of 211 miles to the 
banks of the South Saskatchewan, where Riel was now playing his little 
game of sedition and death. Otter's Column left Swift Current on 
April nth, marched 203 miles to Battleford at the rate of thirty miles 
a day and reached its destination on the 25th. General Strange left 
Calgary on April 20th and reached Edmonton on May 5th, after hav- 
ing marched 194 miles in fifteen days. Such figures convey some 
idea of the rapidity of movement which characterized this entire 
campaign. 

The fate of the Columns was somewhat varied. That of Major- 
General Strange had little trouble to encounter u ntil it reached Edmon- 
ton, near which place the Indians had risen under a chief named Big 
Bear and had destroyed farms and plundered food supplies in every 
direction. At a more distant point, called Frog's Lake, they had 
murdered nine men — including two priests — besides carrying away a 
number of women and children as prisoners. This occurrence had 
followed the incident at Duck Lake and was upon the lines of a policy 
of Half-breed co-operation with the Indians which Riel had hoped 
would be effectual elsewhere. From Edmonton General Strange — 
greatly assisted by some cavalry under Major S. B. Steele — moved 



46o THE NORTH-WEST AND THE REBELLION OF 1885 

down the North Saskatchewan to Fort Pitt, a Hudson's Bay Company 
fort, not far from Frog's Lake and 200 miles east of Edmonton. 
There he found that the post had been abandoned by Inspector 
Dickins and his small force of N. W. M. V. after a prolonged resist- 
ance to Big Bear. The Inspector and most of his men succeeded in 
escaping to Battleford, after suffering severe hardships. On May 
24th the General marched out to meet the Indian chief and found 
him at a place called Frenchman's Butte, which he also found it 
impossible to take. A great morass was behind the position occupied 
by Big Bear and a frontal attack was, in the General's opinion, out of 
the question. He, therefore, retired to Fort Pitt, where he awaited 
the early arrival of General Middleton, after his expected juncture at 
Battleford with Colonel Otter. 

CUT-KNIFE HILL AND FISH CREEK 

Meanwhile, the Battleford Column had also met what seems to 
have been a partial reverse. Colonel Otter arrived at Battleford 
without serious incident and found the place menaced by alarge band 
of Indians under one of the most astute of North-West chiefs — a 
man named Poundmaker. Various acts of depredation had been com- 
mitted, some settlers killed and a certain amount of plundering done. 
But the situation does not appear to have been as serious as had been 
represented to General Middleton, nor is it likely that the astute Cree 
would have done anything which could not have been disavowed until 
he saw which way the campaign was likely to go. Upon Colonel 
Otter's arrival, however, the latter found the inhabitants of Battleford 
in a state of great alarm and Poundmaker with some 200 followers 
encamped about thirty-eight miles away. The Indian chief was said 
to be wavering between peace and war, witli a sort of half-formed 
intention to effect a junction of his force and that of Big Bear. 
To prevent this a reconnaissance of the Canadian troops was made 
in force and, at a place called Cut-Knife Hill, Otter came up with 



THE NORTIl-WF.ST .\\n rifE Ri:BF.LlJOy OF 1885 461 

Poundmaker's braves. A general conflict followed which ended in the 
disablement of the Canadian guns, the loss of eight men killed and 
fourteen wounded, and a withdrawal to Battleford, There Colonel 
Otter awaited the hoped-for coming of General Middleton. 

Everything now turned upon the first Column and its success 
with the forces under Riel and Dumont. On April 23rd, the Gene- 
ral had left Clark's Crossing and marched his force in two divisions 
— one on each side of the South Saskatchewan — toward Batoche. 
During the day it traversed eighteen miles of country and on the next 
morning General Middleton's own part of the force came in contact 
with the enemy a few miles from the river in a thickly wooded ravine 
called Fish Creek. The rebels were well placed in deep and carefully 
protected rifle-pits and, although the troops from the other side of 
the river were brought across and the whole force was eneaeed 
during the greater part of the day it was found impossible to dislodge 
Dumont and his men without an actual frontal charge. This, Cap- 
tain James Mason — afterwards Lieutenant-Colonel in command of 
the Royal Grenadiers — offered to lead and begged earnestly for per- 
mission to do so. But the General showed his humane disposition 
by refusing to risk the lives of any more of his citizen soldiers. 
Enough, he declared, had been lost already. The killed, and those 
who died of wounds received during the fight, numbered ten and the 
wounded men over forty. General Middleton had himself received a 
bullet through his cap and many of the ofificers had had their horses 
shot under them. 

The night which followed was a sufificiently gloomy one to vol- 
unteers unaccustomed to endure repulse with equanimity ; and with 
the sounds of shot and shell and the shouts of combatants still rinp-ino- 
in their ears. The rebels, however, had lost some thirteen killed and 
eighteen wounded and this appears to have been enough for them as 
they decamped to Batoche during the night. General Middleton now 

25 



462 THE NORTH-WEST AND THE REBELLION OF 1S85 

decided to stay for some time at Fish Creek in order to complete his 
hospital arrangements, await expected supplies, and receive some 
more men who were on the way under Colonel Williams. These came 
by the s\.&?i\\vtr Nortlicole, on May 5th, and with them was Lientenant- 
Colonel Bowen Van Straubenzie, who had served in the British army 
in India, China and the Crimea and had been for years connected 
with the Canadian militia. The infantry was at once formed into a 
brigade with Van Straubenzie as commander and, two days later, the 
advance upon Batoche was resumed. 

THE liATTLE OF BATOCIIE 

This place had been the headquarters of Riel and his band of 
rebels from the beginning. Under the direction of Dumont, who 
possessed some natural instinct for military operations, it had been 
steadily strengthened by entrenchments and rifle-pits and it was now 
known that the resistance would be desperate. On May gth this fact 
was experienced. The place was shelled and partially surrounded 
but at the end of a day's fighting no real progress had been made. 
The General sent off orders to close up the lines of communication 
in case help should be required ; despatched Lord Melgund to Ottawa 
with important messages and an undertaking that should matters 
grow more serious he could return from Winnipeg ; and camped 
during- the nieht under the continued fire of the enemv. The sue- 
ceeding day passed in an exchange of shots and was marked by a 
slight forward movement on the part of the rebels. On the third day 
a reconnahsance was made with the view of exactly locating the 
enemy and preparing for the final attack. On the i?th a forward 
movement was initiated, and developed into a charge which burst 
through the rifle-pits, carried the enemy's quarters, streamed in 
triumph through the streets of the village and killed 47 and wounded 
163 of the rebels. Riel surrendered three days later and was at once 
sent to Regina and placed in the hands of the civil authorities. 



The north-west and the rebellion oe i8Ss 463 

The battle proved an interesting revelation of the dash and spirit 
of Canadian volunteers just as the preceding three days showed how 
they chafed under the delay caused by General Middleton's frequently 
expressed desire to avert the loss of life amongst his troops as far as 
possible. Five were killed, however, including four officers, and twen- 
ty-five wounded, including two officers, during this last day's fighting. 
The honours of the day are generally accorded to Colonel Williams 
of Port Hope. Brave to the point of rashness and impulsive to the 
point of imprudence he had led in the final charge and won a lasting 
reputation for the ensuing success. A couple of months later he 
died as a result of fever and brain inflammation preying upon a sys- 
tem already weakened by hardship and upon a nature sensitive in the 
extreme to criticism and to the necessary discipline of camps. A monu- 
ment at Port Hope expresses popular appreciation of the " Hero of 
Batoche " while public memory has crowned him with a laurel of 
reputation. 

Unfortunately, however, the event has been the cause of consid- 
erable controversy and a word must be said here regarding the mat- 
ter. The responsibility for ordering the charge is largely the point in 
question though it would seem as if that were hardly a matter affect- 
ing the credit of Colonel Williams. If he obeyed orders in advanc- 
ing and forged ahead of the others, the result is greatly to his honour. 
If without orders, or in anticipation of them, he led his men in a mad 
rush upon the entrenchments of the rebels, then he assumed a 
responsibility which subordinate officers do not usually care to take, 
or in the regular service, dare to take. The consequences of the 
charge might have been different and in that case the position of an 
officer so acting would have been very unpleasant no matter how 
great his bravery might have been. Lieutenant-Colonel George T. 
Denison, one of the best known of Canada's militia officers and a 
man whose opinion carries weight, takes the somewhat extraordinary 



464 'IHE NORTH-WEST AND THE REBELLION OF 1885 

ground in a volume which has attracted much public interest in the 
k.st year of the century/^ that "attempts have been made to detract 
from the credit due to Williams by trying to spread the view that he 
acted under the orders of General Middleton and Colonel Van Strau- 
benzie in bringing on the general action." He goes on to say that 
as a result of the charge the campaign, as well as the battle, was won. 

It is a new contention for obedience to orders upon the field 
of battle to be stamped as discreditable. Aside from that, however, 
it is difficult to see how Colonel Williams' reputation can be injuri- 
ously affected by any statement of the fact that in leading the charge 
he did it under command of his superiors. If he was rash and impul- 
sive enough to have led it without orders, as Colonel Denison believes 
from the evidence before him, then his reputation must rest upon the 
fact of success followed by death having made it impossible to criti- 
cise an action which, let it be repeated, might have had serious con- 
sequences of a very different sort. The official statements concern- 
ing the matter are sufficiently explicit. General Middleton in his 
Report of May 31, 18S5, states that : 

" Two companies of the Midl.nnd, sixty men in all, under command of Lieuten- 
ant-Colonel Williams, were extended on the left and moved up to the cemetery and 
the Grenadiers, 200 strong under Lieutenant-Colonel Grxsett, * * ^ prolonged the 
line to the right, the 90th being in support. The ^Midland and Grenadiers, led by 
Lieutenant-Colonels Williams and Cjrasett, the whole led by Lieutenant-Colonel Van 
Straubenzie, in command of the Brigade, then dashed forward with a cheer and drove 
the enoniy out of the pits in front of the cemetery and the ravine to the right of it. " 

The General then gives further incidents of the action and finally 
adds that Lieutenant-Colonels Williams and Grasett " came promi- 
nently to my notice from the gallant way in which they led and 
cheered their men to the left, rush by rush, until they gained the 
houses on the plain — the former having commenced the rush." 

* Soldiering in Canada. By Lieutenant-Colonel George T. Denison. George N. Mor^ng & Company, Limited. 
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THE NORTH-WEST AND THE REBELIJON OE 1885 4S7 

There appears to have been no desire on the part of the Grn- 
eral to detract from any laurels which may have been won by 
Williams on this occasion and he distinctly t^dvcs him first 
place in the Report quoted. In a further despatch dated December 
30th, he refers to his death in most sympathetic terms and speaks of 
it as having deprived Canada of one of her best men and himself of 
a warm and sincere friend. Colonel Van Straubenzie under his own 
siernature,* has stated that " on the occasion of that charg-e on the 
rifle-pits of Batoche on the 12th of May last, I ordered the late 
lamented Colonel Williams, in most emphatic and unqualified lan- 
guage, to advance to the charge, at the same time advancing myself 
in charge of the attacking party." Lieutenant-Colonel C. A. Boulton, 
who was an e)'e-witness of the fight, in his volume of Reminiscences 
of tlie Rebellion, also speaks of Colonel Van Straubenzie's orders to 
advance and of himself seeing the rapid rush of the Midlanders on the 
left and the Grenadiers in the centre, mixed with the 90th. 

CONCLUSION OF THE CAMPAIGN 

It would seem, therefore, reasonably clear that Colonel Williams 
led in the final charge and was closely supported by Colonel Grasett; 
that both officers were obeying the orders of the Colonel Van 
Straubenzie ; that the latter, as Brigade Commander, was following 
the plan of operations already mapped out by General Middleton. 
The action itself was only the gallant ending of a carefully arranged 
movement leading up to this result — and it seems as difficult, there- 
fore, to understand how Colonel Williams with his sixty or seventy 
men could have won the campaign in obeying the order to charge at 
Batoche as it does to see how the statement of the fact that he was so 
ordered can detract from his final reputation. 

The rest of the campaign may be rapidly reviewed. On May 
24th, General Middleton arrived at Battleford ; two days later 

* Toronto Mail. Letter published editorially on July 24, 1835. 



468 THE NORTH-WEST AND THE REBELLION OF 1SS5 

Poundmaker and his chiefs surrendered ; on the 30th the General, 
with gatlings, infantry and cavalry left by steamer to help Strange at 
Fort Pitt ; within a few days separate forces under Strange and Otter, 
with Mounted Police from Prince Albert and a body of men under 
the General himself, were converging from different points upon the 
trail of Bie Bear. After a stern chase over extremely difificult coun- 
try, however, the pursuit was ultimately abandoned and it was not 
until July 2nd that the Indian leader came in and voluntarily surren- 
dered. The rising was now at an end. The wearied and war-worn 
volunteers returned to their homes and, at Toronto, Montreal, Halifax 
and other points received ovations which are worthy of more than a 
mere scanty reference here and which stamped a spirit of growing 
Canadian patriotism deep down into many a hitherto doubting heart. 

Riel, after a prolonged trial — held during a keen racial and sec- 
tarian controversy aroused through his being partly French by extrac- 
tion and presumably Catholic in religion — was hung at Regina on 
the 1 6th of November. The majesty of the law and the common sense 
of national order were thus sternly vindicated as they should have been 
fifteen years before. Eight Indians were hung for murder and a 
number imprisoned for different terms. Amongst the latter was 
Poundmaker, who was given three years in the penitentiary and died 
before his term expired. A medal and clasp was issued by the 
Imperial authorities to all who participated in the suppression of the 
insurrection ; the Hon. Adolphe P. Caron, who had proven himself 
an energetic and effective Minister of Militia, was made a K. C. M. G. ; 
General Middleton, amidst wide approval, was given the same 
honour together with the thanks of the Canadian Parliament and a 
vote of $20,000. 

An unfortunate aftermath occurred to the latter in the discovery of 
certain alleged irregularities in connection with aseizureof furs belong- 
ing to the rebels. The confiscation seems to have been permitted by the 



THE NORTH-WEST AND THE REBELLION OF r8!^5 469 

General without much thought and with the knowledge and concurrence 
of Mr. Hayter Reed, a Government official who accompanied him in 
an advisory capacity in connection with Indian and Half-breed civil 
affairs. Some of these furs were divided up amongst the General's 
Staff, with his permission, and a few were allotted to him. " As to 
my own share," he said in his pathetic Address to the people of 
Canada, issued on August 21, 1890, "I never received it, asked for 
it, or thought about it afterwards." Yet, when the question of these 
furs was brought up by some irresponsible person, it was promptly 
seized upon by politicians as a means of damaging the Government 
and the latter very ungenerously and weakly tried to escape criticism 
as to their management of civil matters in the North-West during the 
Rebellion by throwing the responsibility upon the General. 

Then came a sort of hue and cry which is sometimes character- 
istic of democracies, and in this case was intensely discreditable, against 
the General. At an earlier date the Government had refused to 
make eood General Middleton's recommendations for honours and 
promotions because there were no French-Canadians included in the 
list and the members of Parliament and press of that Province had 
keenly resented the omission. They now joined readily enough in 
attacking the General, while the Opposition, too, thought they saw 
some political capital in the incident. Many of them did not like an 
Imperial Commander of the Militia and considered this as one more 
opportunity to throw discredit upon the system. The General was, 
therefore, thrown to the wolves of partisanship and the Report of 
a Select Committee of the House was distinctly against him. His 
resignation had to follow and an honest English gentleman and gal- 
lant officer, who would rather have cut his hand off than commit a 
dishonourable action, was compelled to leave the country under sus- 
picion by not a few of having actually stolen furs ! The whole 
episode was discreditable to Canada and to Canadians and the 



470 THE NORTH-WEST AND THE REBELLION OF 18S5 

Imperial Government never did a more just action than in receiving 
Sir Fred. Middlcton witli favour and making him Keeperof the Crown 
Jewels in the Tower of London. 

The Rebellion by this time had been long passed, its issues more 
or less forgotten, its causes obliterated or healed, its subsequent poli- 
tical complications in French Canada soothed and modified. But the 
fact of Canadian troops having carried themselves so well ; the memo- 
ries of the killed and wounded at Cut Knife and Fish Creek and 
Batoche ; the feeling of unity which grew as a result of Canadians 
from so many Provinces standing shoulder to shoulder in a struggle 
on Canadian soil ; the remembrance of the spontaneous enthusiasm 
which everywhere greeted the returning troops ; had combined to 
develop the slowly-growing national sentiment of the people as 
neither Confederation nor the great practical measures of progress 
during ensuing years had been able to do. Out of evil had come 
good ; out of rebellion had come greater unity ; out of war had come 
a wider patriotism. 



CHAPTER XXIV 
Quebec and the Jesuits Estates Question 

THERE is much in the political history of modern Quebec that 
is incomprehensible to the average Canadian outside of that 
Province and much in its peculiar combination of Church and 
State and racial interests that is of importance to every citizen of the 
Dominion as well as essential to a knowledge of the myriad threads 
going into the composition of our Canadian story. All these and 
other phases of Provincial feeling found a place round the aggressive, 
genial, eloquent and yet corrupt figure of RI. Honore Mercier. 

QUEBEC CONSERVATIVE IN POLITICS 

From Confederation up to his time Quebec had been mainly 
Conservative in its political complexion — loyal to Sir John Macdonald 
in Dominion policy, loyal to Conservative leaders in local matters, 
loyal to the Church of the French people in its then unquestioned 
sympathy with Canadian Toryism. The Conservative Ministries of 
P. J. O. Chauveau, George Ouimet and C. E. B. de Boucherville 
succeeded one another between 1S67 and 1878. Then, after a brief 
year of Liberalism under the Hon. H. G. Joly de Lotbiniere, the old 
party re-assumed office under the late Sir J. A. Chapleau and J. A. 
Mousseau, J. J. Ross and L. O. Taillon, as successive Premiers up 
to 1887. 

A central figure of Conservatism in Quebec during these years 
was Sir Adolphe Chapleau. Brilliant in speech, clever in political 
management and perhaps not too exacting in political morals, he was 
for long one of the great leaders of his race and party in both 
Provincial halls and Dominion Parliament. Opposed to him there 

471 



472 QUEBEC AND THE JESUITS ESTATES QUESTIONS 

was no really commandinj^r figure until the appearance on the scene 
of Honore Mercier and Wilfrid Laurier. Resembling each other in 
vivacity and eloquence and in the graceful charm of French manners, 
no two men could be more unlike in character, in the faculty of 
personal growth, and in the test of ultimate success, than were 
these two leaders of French Liberalism. They were drawn into the 
crucible of conflict upon the Riel question and the former came out 
successful in Provincial matters while the latter was defeated in his 
Dominion campaign as a leader of the Liberal party. Yet victory 
in the former case meant ultimate downfall ; in the latter case defeat 
spelt triumph of the highest kind which a political leader can win. 
The result perhaps turned more upon the personality of the men 
than upon differences in their actual poliry 

RISING SPIRIT OF SECTARIAMSM AjS'D SECTIONALISM 

Mercier, in 18S5, had flashed like a meteor across the political 
horizon. The moment was opportune. Louis Tiiel had been 
executed at Regina for his leadership of the Rebellion, despite the 
more or less fiery protests from French Canada — made under the 
zealously propagated belief that he was being punished at the 
.instigation of the Orangemen of Ontario for the crime of being a 
Roman Catholic and a French Half-breed! Great meetings had been 
held in Montreal addressed by Mercier and Laurier, and the rising 
spirit of sectarianism and sectionalism was being fanned into a flame. 
The French members of the Dominion Government — Chapleau, Sir 
Hector Langevin and Sir Adolphe Caron — were urged to resign and 
the first-named was formally offered the leadership of what was to be 
called " Le Parti Nationale." He refused in ringing terms, Mercier 
accepted with equal eloquence and the battle was on between parties 
and leaders alike. 

An important change in the situation, as compared with past 
political conflicts, was very apparent. Hitherto the Roman Catholic 



QUEBEC AND THE JESUITS ESTATES QUESTION 473 

Church had been in antagonism to, or antagonized by, the principles 
of Liberalism in the Province. Now, a great split in the Conservative 
party seemed inevitable from the fact of Mercier taking high ground 
for the Church and winning into the ranks of his new " National 
Party" the Ultramontanes, or extreme ecclesiastical element. 
Meanwhile, Riel had suffered for his crimes upon the scaffold at 
Regina. During 1886 the Provincial elections took place and Mr. 
Mercier flung himself into the fray with fiery eloquence and force. 
He battered at the hitherto invulnerable walls of local Conservatism 
with all the power of a position which included appeals to racial pre- 
judice and religious bigotry and, in the end, won the day. Mr. Taillon 
did not immediately resign but, on the meeting of the Assembly, was 
defeated and Mercier became Prime Minister on January 27, 1887. 
It was a striking victory for a man who had never held office except 
for a few months in the Joly Ministry of 1S79 ^'^^ \^\'\o had faced the 
eloquent Chapleau and all the organized power of Quebec Conserva- 
tism. The meteor now for a time staid its course and the public 
wondered what would follow a conflict which had resulted in the 
overthrow of old parties, the breaking of old political and ecclesiasti- 
cal ties, the raising of the evil spirits of race antagonism and religious 
prejudice. 

Meanwhile, the Riel question had precipitated a very important 
crisis in Dominion affairs. As the tide of Mercierism in Quebec rose 
higher and higher it looked as if the Conservative party was to be 
submerged in Dominion as well as Provincial matters. Even the 
magnetic personality of Sir John A. Macdonald appeared to have lost 
its influence in this wild war of words over the death of a weak and 
worthless rebel. He was freely denounced by French-Canadian 
speakers as " the enemy of our nationality " and was burned in effigy 
at Montreal, whilst Chapleau, Langevin and Caron were bracketed 
together in public resolutions as " traitors to their country." Riel had 



47a QUEBEC AND THE JESUITS ESTATES QUESTION 

come to be regarded as the hero of Quebec and one of the political 
martyrs of his race ; Mr. Mercier was the leader of a movement which, 
in the sacred names of race and religion, would eventually avenge his 
wicked execution ; the Parti-Nationale was to sweep out of existence 
the enemies of French Canada and of the Roman Catholic Church and 
Mr. Laurier was to lead in the Dominion part of the project ; the 
Province of Ontario was to be stirred up by Mr. Blake against those 
who had committed what 30,000 people on the Champ de Mars in 
Montreal declared to be "an act of inhumanity and cruelty unworthy 
of a civilized nation." 

The flame of sectarian and sectional passion became so pronounced 
that even Sir John Macdonald, hopeful and optimistic as he naturally 
was, feared his Government would hardly, weather the storm. Le 
Monde, a French Conservative paper, said after the execution of Riel, 
and in doing so voiced the general sentiment of the press in Quebec, 
that : " Fanaticism wants a victim ; Riel has been offered as a hola- 
caust ; and Orangeism has hanged him for hate and to satisfy an old 
thirst for revenge." The Toronto Mail, the old-time Conservative 
organ, but now verging upon direct opposition to the Government, 
threw fuel on the rising flames by declaring "that the Conquest 
will have to be fought over again " and that the result would do away 
with the privileges of 1763. The Orange Sentinel, in reply to the 
bitter diatribes of its Quebec contemporaries, declared before the 
execution that if the Government dared not hang the rebel the day 
would not be far distant when " the call to arms will again resound 
throughout the Dominion." 

THE DEBATE IN THE COMMONS 

Such was the position on March 11, 1886, when Mr. Landry pre- 
sented in the House of Commons a somewhat famous Resolution to 
the following effect : " That this House feels it its duty to express its 
deep regret that the sentence of death passed upon Louis Riel, 




THE HON. GEORGE 'W. ROSS, LL.D. 

Premier of i Intario in 19UU 




THE HON. DAVID MILLS, Q.C. 

Senator t'f Canada and Minister^f Tustict 




THE HON. WILLIAM STEVENS FIELDING 

M.P. 

Finosce Minister of Canada, 1896-1900 



THE HON. ANDREW G. BLAIR, (J.C , M.P. 
Prime Minister ol' New Brunswick, l^&^^ 



QUEBEC AND THE JESUITS ESTATES QUESTION 477 

convicted of high treason, was allowed to be carried into execution." 
This Conservative member of Parliament described the Government's 
action in a strain of the fiercest invective and in lano-uaCTe which was 
very frequently duplicated during the ensuing debate. This carrying 
out of the laws of the land against a blood-stained, calculating, cor- 
rupt and twice-guilty rebel was to him a provocation flung at the face 
of a whole nationality, a breach of the laws of justice, an evidence of 
weakness on the part of the Ministry, the gratification of a long- 
sought vengeance, the wanton sacrifice of a French-Canadian Catholic 
upon the altar of sectarian hatred and bigotry. Many other speakers 
followed. Mr. Clarke Wallace declared that out of 2,000 Orange 
lodges in the country only six had passed resolutions on the subject. 
Mr. M. C. Cameron denounced the Government for having "trafficked 
in the destiny of a fellow mortal." Mr. Wilfrid Laurier, in a speech 
which was remarkable for the purity of its diction and the beauty of 
its language and style declared his own belief and that of his Prov- 
ince to be that the execution of Riel was " the sacrifice of a life, not to 
inexorable justice, but to bitter passion and revenge." Sir Hector 
Langevin and Sir Adolphe Caron strongly defended the Government 
to which they belonged. 

Then came the most important event of the debate — the speech 
of Mr. Blake and the first prominent appearance of Mr. J. S. D. 
Thompson upon the arena of Dominion affairs. A man of solid 
attainments, high character and excellent reputation, the latter had 
been a moderately successful Premier of Nova Scotia, a very success- 
ful Judge of its Supreme Court and had lately been appointed Min- 
ister of Justice at Ottawa. Practically, the House had not yet heard 
from him. Mr. Blake was still the Liberal leader. He had been 
defeated in the elections of 1882 and had now turned all his remark- 
able legal acumen, his keen intellect and patient perseverance in 
research to build up a case which, by logic and force of argument, 



478 QUEBEC AND THE JESUITS ESTATES QUESTION 

should help to brini^ victory to his banners in 18S7. To the wavering 
fabric of prejudice and passion, the creation of racial and religious 
bitterness, which had been evolved in the country and Parliament, he 
now sought in a speech which was admittedly a great one to give a 
basis of strength, a foundation of fact. It was a remarkable effort in 
its close reasoning, its display of constitutional knowledge, its vigor- 
ous invective. Precedents and authorities and references flowed from 
him as though created expressly for the occasion and intended by fate 
to fit like stones into the foundation of the political building he was 
seeking to strengthen. The House expected a great speech and 
received it. 

It was different in the case of Mr. Thompson. Even the most 
enthusiastic Conservative did not expect this new Minister, about 
whom he felt some natural curiosity, to do more than present a fair 
case for himself and his cause. For him to overthrow Mr. Blake's 
elaborate structure was not thought possible. The Liberals would 
have laughed heartily had anyone claimed that this short, stout, 
fresh-coloured, young-looking man from Nova Scotia would prove a 
match for Edward Blake. Success in such a supposition meant the 
defeat of the greatest loeician and debater in the House of Commons 
and the complete defence of the Government in a matter involving most 
intricate constitutional issues. It would mean that a new man had 
pitted himself victoriously against a veteran in Parliamentary life and 
constitutional lore. Yet this was exactly what happened, on the 1 2th of 
March, in a crowded House and from a speech which received the 
closest and most critical attention. For two hours the quiet, unpre- 
tentious speaker held his audience so that a pin might have been 
heard to fall. The new Minister was, in fact, master of himself, mas- 
ter of his subject, master of the law in its theory, practice and prece- 
dent, master of the House. He pierced the armour of Mr. Blake's 
argument with the most direct and irresistible skill and. while not 



QUEBEC AND THE JESUITS ESTATES QUESTION 479 

appealing in the least to his hearers' passions, prejudices or sympa- 
thies, he subdued a critical and censorious body of men by the pure 
force of reasoninsf and logfic. 

Three days afterwards the Government found themselves with a 
majority of 146 to 42. The threatened secession of the French 
element in the party had been averted and a new leader had appeared 
who was to keep on growing in political stature until he became 
Prime Minister of Canada in 1892. The strength which his speech 
brought to the Government was sorely needed and so was the not 
inconsiderable help which the fact of his being a Roman Catholic 
carried with it. For the time, however, although the Conservative 
majority in the House was safe, Mr. Mercier and Mr. Laurier seemed 
to hold Quebec in the hollow of their hands. Paper after paper went 
over to the Liberals and fresh disaffection in the Conservative party 
ranks was a matter of daily report. The Provincial elections, as 
already described, had gone in favour of Mercier and the finger on 
the wall of fate appeared to indicate the coming defeat of the 
Dominion Government. But, in January, 1S87, when the contest 
came on, the eloquence of Chapleau was pitted successfully against 
that of Laurier ; the influence of Langrevin with the Church, as a 
whole, was found equal to that of Mercier with the Ultramontane 
element; the ringing campaign oratory of the Hon. George E. Fos- 
ter, who had come into the Government about the same time as Mr. 
Thompson, proved singularly effective in the English Provinces ; the 
logical reasoning of the latter carried conviction to many minds ; 
while over all, and mingled with all the other influences, was the 
magnetic personality of Sir John Macdonald. The result was a Con- 
servative victory, with numbers even in Quebec, a sweeping majority 
in the Maritime Provinces and the North-West, and a fair one in 
Ontario. A little later the accession of Mr. Wilfrid Laurier to the 
Liberal leadership, in succession to Mr. Blake was announced — the 



48o QUEBEC ASP THE JESUITS ESTATES QUESTION 

first I'rcnch-Canadian party leader of both races since the days when 
nominal power rested in the hands of Sir Etienne Tache or Sir 
Narcisse Belleaii. 

ORI(;i\ OF THE JESUITS ESTATES QUESTION 

Another question was now looming upon the political horizon 
which, in the end, appealed to many of the same passions and preju- 
dices as those surroundinc: the name of Riel. The first stagfes in the 
history of the Jesuits Estates issue did not seem to involve any seri- 
ous results. On the 3rd of July, 1888, a Bill for the settlement of a 
long-standiny dispute between the Society of Jesus, the 'hierarchy of 
the Roman Catholic Church in Quebec, and the Province itself, was 
passed without opposition or contest through the Lower House of the 
Quebec Legislature. It went throusjh the Council, also, without 
opposition and in due course was assented to by the Lieutenant- 
Governor and became law — subject, of course, within a certain period 
to disallowance by the Dominion authorities should the legislation be 
considered unconstitutional or dang-erous to the interest of the coun- 
try as a whole. At first there was neither popular opposition nor 
serious criticism. With one or two exceptions, not a paper in Quebec 
discussed the matter from a hostile standpoint and the Protestant 
Committee of Public Instruction quietly accepted the promise of $60,- 
000 for their schools which was included in the measure. 

It seemed, therefore, as if this was to prove a satisfactory settle- 
ment of a prolonged controversy and a complex problem. In origin 
the issue had been simple enough. During their heroic missionary 
labours in early Canada, the Jesuits had acquired lands and wealth for 
their Order while winning laurels of martyrdom and personal fame for 
themselves. In 1791, after the general suppression of the Order by 
the Pope, the King of Great Britain issued a proclamation endorsing 
its suppression in Canada, but allowing the use of estates and incomes 
to the members so long as any of them should be alive. By 1800 the 



QUEBEC AND THE JESUITS ESTATES QUESTION 481 

last Jesuit in Quebec had passed away and the properties of the 
Order, it was claimed, were escheated to the Crown. But in cases 
of escheat a liberal proportion is frequently appropriated to the car- 
rying out of the intention of the donors, or to indemnifying those 
who may morally consider themselves entitled to it. It was, there- 
fore, believed by many, and including some of the leaders in the 
Church, that the re-instatement of the Jesuits by the Vatican at a 
later date, together with their incorporation by the Province, gave 
them this moral right — such as it was. The hierarchy of the Church 
in Quebec claimed, on the other hand, that under the terms of origi- 
nal suppression by the Pope, the estates should have passed to the 
Church as a whole and not to the Crown. 

Hence a political situation in a Catholic Province which made it 
very difficult for successive Governors or Governments to move in 
the matter of satisfying either party in the Church, or of selling the 
lands so as to benefit the people at large. At every attempt to do so 
they were met by vigorous protests against the diversion of any of 
the properties from the charitable or religious purposes to which they 
had been orginally devoted by private donors, or by grants from the 
King of France. There was only one authority, in connection with 
the subject, whom both elements of thought in the Church would 
recognize and whose decision would be accepted without demur. 
But to the Pope no Provincial Government had hitherto cared to 
appeal. Complications were possible and political troubles, greater 
than any ills which would follow the further postponement of the 
matter, were always in view. Mr. Mercier, however, with all his faults 
did not lack courage. He decided to settle the affair — and at the 
same time please the Ultramontanes who had stood by him in the 
elections — by referring it to Pope Leo XIII., as a sort of arbitrator. 
His Holiness accepted the position, after full explanations had been 

offered at the Vatican, and appointed the Archbishop of Quebec to 

26 



482 QUEBEC AND THE JESUITS ESTATES QUESTION 

act as his attorney in the subsequent negotiations. This latter 
arrangement, however, was subsequently cancelled. 

The Quebec Premier succeeded under these conditions in mak- 
ing an agreement by wliich the Jesuits were to receive $400,000 in 
quittance of claims aggregating $2,000,000 and a much-vexed question 
was to be apparently disposed of. In the preamble to his measure, 
however, he made the mistake of introducing the Pope's name as a 
sort of supreme arbiter between parties and sections in the Province. 
Whether this was done purposely, or ignorantly, whether it was con- 
ceived in a spirit of religious bigotry, or arose out of absolute forget- 
fulness that the rest of the Dominion was largely different in creed 
from his own Province, matters little in the result. And, whatever 
significance there may have been in such legislation, as carried out 
under the approval and arrangement of the authorities at Rome, it 
certainly passed unnoticed for the moment by the people of Quebec 
as a whole. The result was very different elsewhere. If Quebec had 
been in a flame of fury over the Riel matter Ontario was now roused, 
slowly but surely, to a white-heat of indignation over this introduction 
of the Pope's name and power into Canadian legislation. Of course, 
in each case, it was only a portion of the people who were so greatly 
stirred up, but it was not the less a vociferous element and one which 
found plentiful means of expression. 

A KEEN .SECTARI.\N CONTROVERSY 

Aggressive Protestantism in Ontario became fiercely angry. 
Orange lodges poured out denunciatory resolutions and the Toronto 
Mail renewed its able but unwise attacks upon Quebec and its reli- 
gious institutions. The Jesuits, as an Order and as individuals, were 
painted in the blackest shades which tongue or pen could produce 
and all the pages of history were ransacked for illustrations which 
could inflame public opinion. \'ery soon the Protestant minority in 
Quebec caught tire from the flames of agitation elsewhere and began 



QUEBEC AND THE JESUITS ESTATES QUESTION 483 

to feel that they must have been deeply injured and that they should 
join in the movement for compelling the Federal Government to disal- 
low the obnoxious measure. On the other hand the French press 
took speedy and intense offence at the remarks of some of their critics 
in the other Provinces and, before long, as bitter a sectarian struggle 
as Canada had ever seen seemed on the point of serious consummation. 

For some time it was unknown what the Dominion Government 
would do. From a political standpoint they appeared to be on the 
horns of a serious dilemma. If they disallowed the measure Quebec 
would probably be lost to the party ; if they allowed it to become 
law Ontario promised to cause an equally serious loss of support. On 
Februarj^ 13, 1889, the first mutterings of the inevitable Parliamen- 
tary storm were heard as Mr. J. A. Barron rose in his place to ask 
certain questions about the Jesuits Estates Act of the Quebec Legis- 
lature. The Minister of Justice in clear and concise terms replied 
that the Government had considered the matter and that he had him- 
self reported the Act to the Governor-General as one which should 
(from a legal and constitutional standpoint) be left to its operation. 
Mr. Thompson was at once made the centre of a fierce campaign. 
His attitude in the Riel question was forgotten and it was declared 
that religious prejudices had guided him in the present case. The 
Rev. Dr. George Douglas of Montreal, Dr. Carman, head of the 
Methodist Church in Canada, Canon (afterwards Bishop) Du Moulin, 
Principal Caven of Kno.x College and many other divines, attacked 
him personally and the Government generally in terms of fiery invec- 
tive and indignation. 

Meetings were held in Toronto and elsewhere as fiercely Protest- 
ant in their tone as the Montreal gatherings of 1885 had been French 
and Catholic in character. Mr. D'Alton McCarthy, O. C, a leading 
lawyer and eminent pleader, a much respected and able man, cham- 
pioned the new principle of proposed Equal Rights in speeches of 



484 QUEBEC AND THE JESf'/TS ESTATES QCESrfO.V 

force and considerable weight. Finally, after much political pertur- 
bation, action was taken in the I louse of Commons by a Resolution pre- 
sented on March 26th by Lieutenant-Colonel William E. O'Brien. It 
was not yet known what the Opposition would do, nor was the strength 
of the extreme Protestant feeling in the House quite understood. It 
was pretty clear, however, that Mr. McCarthy, who was the real leader 
of the movement, could hardly get enough followers to defeat the 
Government, in coalition with the Liberals, unless the French Con- 
servative members should refrain from voting altogether. The motion 
was a strong one, and very cleverly phrased, in the following words: 

"That an huml>le Address be presented to His Excellency the Governor-Gen- 
eral setting forth : (i.) That this House regards the power of disallowing the Acts of 
the Legislative Assemblies of the Provinces, vested in His Excellency-in-Council, as a 
prerogative essential to the national existence of the Dominion ; (2.) That this great 
power, while it should never be wantonly exercised, should be fearlessly used for the 
protection of the rights of a minority, fur tlie preservation of the fundamental princi- 
ples of the Constitution, and for safe-guarding the general interests of the people ; 
(3.) That in the opinion of this House the passage by the Legislature of the Province 
of Quebec of the Act entitled ' An Act respecting the settlement of the Jesuits 
Estates ' is beyond tlie power of that Legislature. Firstly, because it endows from 
public funds a religious organization, thereby violating the undoubted constitutional 
principle of the complete separation of Church and State. Secondly, because it recog- 
nizes the usurpation of a right by foreign authority, namely, His Holiness the Pope of 
Rome, to claim that his consent was necessary to empower the Pro\'incial Legislature 
to dispose of a portion of the publii: domain and, also, because the Act is made to 
depend upon the will, and the appro|)riation of the grant thereby made as subject to 
the control of the same authority. And. thirdly, because the endowment of the Society 
of Jesus, an alien, secret and politico-religious body, the expulsion of which from every 
Christian community wlicrcin it lias had footing has been rendered necessary by its 
intolerant and mischievous inter-meddling with the functions of civil government, is 
frought with danger to the civil and religious liberties of the people of Can.ida. And 
lliis House, therefore, prays that His Excellency will be graciously pleased to disallow 
the said Act." 




GILBERT PARKER, D.C.L., M.P. 




■WILLIAM WILFRID CAMPBELL 




ARCHIBALD LAMPMAN 



CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 



QUEBEC AND THE JESUITS ESTATES QUESTION 487 

This lengthy indictment of the Act and criticism of the posi- 
tion assumed by the Government, is given in full here because it 
sums up succintly and clearly the case presented in many speeches 
upon a myriad platforms during the succeeding year. It was skilfully 
worded and intended to obtain support from all who believed in limit- 
ing Provincial powers of legislation; of all who disliked or dreaded 
Roman Catholicism ; of all who shared in a popular Protestant aver- 
sion to the Papal temporal power and the extension of Jesuit influ- 
ence. The debate which followed was a most interesting one from 
the amount of historical research that was in evidence, if for no other 
reason. The Jesuits were defended or denounced in every phrase of 
praise or execration which could be found in the pages of the past. 
Colonel O'Brien, Mr. J. C. Rykert, Mr. J. A. Barron and Mr. C. C. 
Colby followed each other in speeches /rf and con. Mr. Colby, him- 
self a Protestant, presented a most interesting picture of the Roman 
Catholic Church as a political instrument of defence against danger- 
ous elements existent in all countries to-day. " It recognizes," he 
declared, " the supremacy of authority ; it teaches observance to law ; 
it teaches respect for the good order and constituted authorities of 
society." He described It, very properly, as opposed to the spirit of 
infidelity, the spirit of anarchy and the spirit which has no respect for 
existing institutions of any kind. 

Mr. McCarthy followed in a clear and cutting arraignment of 
the Government and all concerned, in either passing or permitting 
such a measure. After him came Sir John Thompson (he had been 
knighted in 1888) in a speech which was as great in matter and form as 
his famous effort upon the Riel question. Other speakers followed, 
notably Mr. Laurier, Sir John Macdonald, and Sir Richard Cartwright 
and then a division took place in which the motion was lost by 1 18 to 
13. It had, of course, been known before this that the Opposition 
was going to vote with the Government, as a whole and in order to 



488 QUEBEC AND THE JESUITS ESTATliS QUESTION 

vindicate the cherished principle of Provincial rights under which 
they had fought various contests in the Provinces — especially Ontario 
and Manitoba — and which now proved a very pleasant and easy plat- 
form for both parties to stand upon. This division disposed of the 
matter so far as Parliament was concerned though it only intensified 
discussion outside. Just as it had been impossible for a time to control 
the storm in Quebec over the execution of Riel so it was now found 
impossible to check the agitation in Ontario over the passage of this 
Act and its allowance by the Federal authorities. 

Various mass meetings were held, the little Parliamentary minor- 
ity was designated the "Noble Thirteen" and, on June 12, 1889,31 
a Convention held in Toronto, the Equal Rights Association was 
formed. This body assumed that the Protestants of Quebec required 
safe-guarding and undertooi< to do that, as well as to resist the appar- 
ently growing encroachments of the Church of Rome. It had a 
nuniber of influential officers, with D'Alton McCarthy as its Parlia- 
mentary leader, and a strong support from many verj' sincere and 
honest people throughout the Province. Amongst a different element 
there also arose the Protestant Protective Association or P. P. A., as 
an avowed and bitter antagonist of Roman Catholicism in private as 
well as public life. The Governor-General was petitioned by Mr. 
Hugh Graham, of Montreal, to refer the constitutionality of the Act 
to the Supreme Court of Canada for consideration, but this was 
refused by advice of the Minister of Justice whose reasons were 
given at length in an able State paper which was published in August. 
Petitions were also presented asking for disallowance — the one from. 
Ontario containing 156,000 signatures and one from Quebec having 
9,000 names signed to it. 

On August 2nd a deputation had waited upon the Governor- 
General bearing these petitions and asking him to exercise his per- 
sonal prerogative by disallowing the legislation in question. Lord 



QUEBEC AND THE JESUITS ESTATES OUESTION 489 

Stanley of Preston listened attentively to the arguments of Principal 
Caven and others. His reply amounted to the simple statement 
that he could not and would not veto a measure in the face of his own 
Ministry and of a large Parliamentary majority comprising the bulk 
of both parties in the Dominion. 

FINAL ADJUSTMENT OF THE QUESTION 

Shortly after this the Protestant Committee of the Quebec 
Council of Public Instruction showed their appreciation of the value 
of money, or their lack of appreciation for the current agitation, by 
accepting in the name of the Protestants of the Province the public 
trust imposed upon them for the distribution or use of the ^60,000 
granted under the terms of the famous measure. Certain conditions 
were made, however, which Mr. Mercier accepted without hesitation 
and, on November 5th, the closing scene in an interesting political 
drama occurred in the City of Quebec. There, in presence of a large 
gathering of representative men, the $400,000 was handed over in the 
manner previously decided upon. A cheque for $100,000 was given 
to the Society of Jesus, $40,000 went to Laval University and the 
rest was divided in sums of $10,000 and $20,000 amongst certain 
interested Dioceses. The Protestant educational authorities also 
received their cheque. 

Nothing now remained for the Equal Rights party but political 
revenge and, under McCarthy's leadership, they sought it in the 
House of Commons by a motion against the using of an official dual 
language in Manitoba or the North-West Territories and by a Reso- 
lution advocating the proposed submission of the constitutional issue 
to the Supreme Court. In Ontario, an agitation was raised against the 
extension of the Separate School system under the Provincial Gov- 
ernment of Mr. Mowat and, later on, the mutterings of the Manitoba 
School question began to be heard. With the rapid subsidence of 
sectarian sentiment, however, the movement gradually collapsed and 



490 QUEBEC AND THE JESUITS ESTATES QUESTION 

the success of the Conservative party in the Dominion elections of 
1891 and of the Liberal party in the Ontario elections of 1890 practi- 
cally killed the Equal Rights Association and the P. P. A. An 
important result remained in the continued alienation of Mr. Mc- 
Carthy from the Conservative party in which he had once been so 
active a leader and prominent figure. 

To the Protestant sentiment of Canada vengeance was, however, 
given in a very real, though very indirect form by the fall of Mr. Mer- 
cier in December 1891. This extraordinary man had spent his few 
years of political triumph revelling in every splendour and pleasure 
that success could give. He had visited Rome, been received with 
open arms by the Papal authorities and decorated with an Order of 
Knighthood and the title of Count. He had come back to the Prov- 
ince to participate in public appearances in which the popularity of 
his reception was only equalled by the many-coloured magnificence of 
his new uniforms. He had lived in a manner which indicated the 
possession of present, or potential, millions. Then came whispers of 
political corruption ; of a "toll " taken by his Government upon finan- 
cial transactions. Finally, the Bale des Chaleurs Railway scandal was 
laid bare, proof was produced that his Government, or himself, had 
received $100,000 for tlie letting of the contract, and a Royal Commis- 
sion by majority report declared him guilty of corruption on this and 
other points. Lieutenant-Governor A. R. Angers promptly dismissed 
him from ofiice. De Boucherville became Premier and, in the elections 
which followed, swept the Province once more for the Conservative 
party. All Mercier's undoubted eloquence and personal popularity . 
failed to affect the verdict, to retain himself in the actual lead of his 
party, or to re-habilitate his personal reputation. A few years later 
this most brilliant and, in many ways, likeable man died in poverty 
and practical retirement. 



CHAPTER XXV 
Trade and Tarifts and Unrestricted Reciprocity 

DURING the years immediately following the adoption of the 
National Policy by Parliament in 1S79 there could be little 
doubt as to popular approval of the tariff while the elections 
of 1882 and 1887 — though in the latter case other issues arose — 
seemed to still further stamp its strength upon the public mind. 
Trade had expanded immensely, then shrunk a little, then grown 
again until in 1891 it was $218,000,000. Railways had increased in 
mileage from six to thirteen thousand, and in traffic from eight to 
t\vent)-one million tons. Business failures had decreased by one- 
half, or over fourteen millions of dollars, while deposits in the char- 
tered and savings banks had risen from $78,000,000 to $192,000,000 
and the revenue had increased sixteen millions in amount. The 
tariff averaged, meanwhile, thirty-five per cent., or about half that of 
the American Republic. There could be no doubt, also, of the 
increase in many lines of industry and the steady growth of factories 
and accumulation of savings amongst the poorer classes. 

rOSITION OF THE PARTIES 

But all was not quite as it should be and there were, naturally, 
shadows thrown even by the sunshine of success. To the Opposition, 
standing out in the cold during year after year and through election 
after election, these shadows darkened until they covered the sun and 
the skies and made the Liberal party feel that some very severe mea- 
sures were required to cauterize the growing ills of the fiscal, political 
and social system. There were certainly some just grounds for pessi- 
mism on the part of the Opposition just as there were excellent reasons 

491 



492 TK.M^E .L\'/) TARIFFS AND UNRESTRICTED RECIPROCITY 

for confidence and optimism in the mind of the Government party. 
The exodus of Canadians to the United States had continued and 
come in the course of years to number hundreds of thousands of 
enterprising and energetic young men. 

The population of the country had not increased very rapidly 
— only some 500,000 in the years between 1881 and 1S91. The public 
debt had grown largely under the policy of heavy expenditure made 
necessary by the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway and the 
deepening of the canals. The farmers were suffering greatly from 
the effect of the McKinley tariff legislation of 1S90 and at least one 
important agricultural industry — the production of barley — had been 
practically ruined. The reciprocity in tariffs which Sir John Mac- 
donald had promised in 1S78 would compel reciprocity in trade had 
not yet succeeded in that aim and the farmers were said to be pining 
for the great American market of 60,000,000. The times were not as 
good as they had been and the shadow of the coming financial crisis 
of 1893 was, perhaps unconsciously, being felt by people in Canada as 
well as elsewhere. Corruption was alleged to be rampant ; monopoly 
was said to be triumphant In the persons of the protected manufactur- 
ers ; and the net effect of the tariff was declared to be a robbery of 
the consumers and the country. 

To this extreme view Conservatives opposed the fact of the dis- 
tinct progress visible in Canada as a whole, the redundancy of 
revenue, the policy of railway expansion, the expenditure of $125,- 
000,000 upon necessary public works in a dozen years of power, the 
increased industrial employ of labour, the protection of the home. 
market for the home producer, the rise in national credit, the enhanced 
prestige of Canada abroad, the development of Manitoba and the North- 
West. Meanwhile, in the years between 1S7S and 1891, the Liberal 
policy had not been stationary. Its mutations in fact had been many. 
Durincr the time of the Mackenzie rcsrime the Premier and Sir Richard 



TRADE AND TARIFFS AND UNRESTRICTED RECIPROCITY 493 

Cartwright had maintained a policy of tariff for revenue only. Dur- 
ing the years which followed 1878 the latter had stood by these politi- 
cal guns and had shotted them with the hottest of invective against all 
forms of protection and, especially, against manufacturers clarfiouring 
for fiscal aid as being little less than "thieves and robbers." In 
1876, Laurier, Charlton, Joly, Paterson and other future Liberal 
leaders appear from their speeches to have been inclined toward 
moderate protective duties. But they stood by their party for the 
time and nothing came of the not very vigorously expressed opinions 
in this direction. 

CHANGES IN LIBERAL TARIFF POLICY 

In 1882 Mr. Edward Blake, then Leader of the Opposition, 
declared himself as still opposed in principle to protection but as 
recognizing that "we are obliged to raise yearly a great sum mainly 
by import duties laid to a great extent on goods similar to those 
which can be manufactured here ; and it results as a necessary inci- 
dent of our settled fiscal system that there must be a large and, as I 
believe, in the view of moderate protectionists, an ample advantage 
to the home manufacturer." * 

Sir Richard Cartwright and other leaders, however, continued to 
denounce protection and neither the manufacturers nor the public 
seemed to think Mr. Blake's position strong enough, or his views 
clear enough, to warrant confidence in the existing fiscal policy being 
reasonably conserved under his auspices. In 1887, therefore, he 
determined to make the situation better for himself and his party by 
a practical declaration that the National Policy would be maintained 
if they were returned to power. At Malvern, on January 22d, in a 
speech which formed the keynote of the ensuing campaign, he 
explained that his opinions of 1882 had grown in force with every 
passing year and that the additions to the public debt, the increase in 

* Address to the Electors of West Durham, dated May 22, iSSz 



494 TRADE A.W TARIFFS AND UNRESTRICTED RECIPROCITY 

the annual charges, the deficits between revenue and expenditure 
had made even the moderate re-adjustment of the tariff which he 
had then proposed impracticable. " It is clearer than ever that a 
very high scale of taxation must be retained and that manufacturers 
have nothing to fear." And then he proclaimed his programme to 
be a fiscal re-adjustmcnt which should be directed " to such reductions 
of expenditure as may allow a reduction of taxation ; to the lighten- 
ing of ta.xes upon the prime necessaries of life and upon the raw 
material of manufactures ; to a more equitable arrangement of the 
taxes which now bear unfairly upon the poor as compared with the 
rich ; to a taxation of luxuries just so high as will not thwart our 
object by greatly checking consumption ; to the curbing of monopo- 
lies of production in cases when, by combination or otherwise, the 
tarif? allows an undue or exorbitant profit to be exacted from the con- 
sumers ; to the effort — a most important point — to promote reciprocal 
trade with our neighbours to the south." 

Still, the electorate remained obdurate. The people did not 
care, apparently, to entrust the administration of a protective tariff to 
leaders who had always been bitterly opposed to the principle — even 
though they now acknowledged a change of conditions and a modifi- 
cation of policy. The second failure, however, to carry the country, 
bitterly disappointed the Opposition. They had fully expected to 
capture the people upon the combined issue of Kiel's execution — in 
Quebec — and an acceptance of the moderate protective policy — in 
Ontario. Fate had decreed now otherwise, and in the autumn 
of 1S87, after Mr. Blake had disappeared from the leadership and Mr.. 
Laurier had done a little coquetting with the new Imperial prefer- 
ential idea at Somerset, Quebec, Sir Richard Cartwright declared 
boldly in a speech at Ingersoll, on October 17th, for a clear-cut policy 
of reciprocity with the United States in agricultural and industrial 
products. Free trade with the American Republic was to be the new 




PARLIAMENT BUILDINGS. TORONTO 




UNIVERSITY OF TRINITY COLLEGE. TORONTO 



TRADE AND TARIFFS AND UNRESTRICTED RECIPROCITY 497 

policy, the path to power, the road to a great 60,000,000 market, the 
way to wealth for the farmer, the miner and the fisherman. 

It was a courageous programme, proposed by a man who never 
lacked courage during a long political career, or words of biting force 
and sarcasm with which to express his meaning. He once more threw 
down the gauntlet to the protectionist. He proclaimed, and very 
truly, the impossibility of obtaining a limited reciprocity in agricul- 
tural products onlv. He declared his willinsfness, if it should be 
necessary, to discriminate against Great Britain in favour of American 
products. He described the American market as the one thing need- 
ful to produce general Canadian prosperity and unlimited expansion 
in trade and production. The policy was not altogether a new one, 
although the title " Unrestricted Reciprocity" was certainly original. 
Away back in 1870, on March i6th, Mr. L. S. Huntington, of subse- 
quent Canadian Pacific contract fame, had moved a Resolution in the 
House of Commons in favour of a Continental trade system and cus- 
toms union. Parliament promptly voted it down and only now and 
then had the idea since been heard of in irresponsible quarters in Can- 
ada and the United States. Reciprocity, itself, was frequently advo- 
cated and promised, but speakers and writers were alike careful to 
limit and restrict it to agricultural products and those of the mine and 
the sea. In 1885, Mr. (afterwards Sir) L. H. Davies had, indeed, 
moved for "additional reciprocal freedom in the trade relations of the 
two countries," but the phrase was a sufficiently vague one to mean 
anything. 

THE UNRESTRICTED RECirROCITV MOVEMENT 

Now the plunge had been taken and a few days later rapid 
endorsement came in an unanimous Resolution of approval passed by 
the Inter-Provincial Conference which met at Quebec durino- the same 
month and year in which Sir Richard Cartwright made his speech at 
Ingersoll. It was attended by the Liberal Premiers of Quebec, 



498 TRADE AND TARIFFS AND UNRESTRICTED RECIPROCITY 

Ontario, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia — Messrs. Mercier, Mowat, 
Blair and Fielding ; by Mr. John Norquay, Premier of Manitoba — 
whose Dominion political opinions were vague, if not entirely absent ; 
by other representatives of these Governments including the Hon. 
A. S. Hardy, the Hon. G. W. Ross, the Hon. F. G. Marchand and 
the Hon. J. W. Longley. The Conference passed various legitimate 
motions calculated to embarrass the Federal Government and amonofst 
other things declared its desire to record " the opinion that Unre- 
stricted Reciprocity would be of advantage to all the Provinces of 
the Dominion " and its belief that such a policy would improve rela- 
tions with the United States without affecting Canadian loyalty 
towards British connection. This shows a pretty rapid acceptance of 
the new policy. 

Strong help came, also, in the way of speeches and pamphlets 
and articles in newspapers from Dr. Goldwin Smith, Mr. Erastus 
Wiman, Mr. Valancy E. Fuller and Mr. J. W. Longley, of Nova 
Scotia. It is questionable how far Dr. Goldwin Smith was really 
serviceable to the movement. His reputation for holding annexation- 
ist sentiments was a pronounced one and he did not now hesitate 
to declare publicly that Unrestricted Reciprocity meant the acceptance 
of the American tariff against the world — including the British Empire 
— and that it was really synonymous with the Commercial Union 
which was being advocated in the United States. Mr. Wiman was a 
better and more useful supporter. He was at this time an eminently 
successful business man in New York, apparently proud of his birth- 
right as a Canadian, kind and helpful to everyone from his native 
land, in control of one of the great telegraph lines of the Dominion 
and very ambitious to be a successful public leader. During the next 
four years Sir R. Cartwright, Mr. Longley, Liberal Attorney-General 
of Nova Scotia, Mr. Wiman and Dr. Goldwin Smith fought vigor- 
ously and spoke frequently for the new policy. They had, also, for 



TRADE AND TARIFFS AND UNRESTRICTED RECIPROCITY 499 

some time and through the ensuing elections, the powerful aid of the 
Toronto Mail — which had been steadily drawing away from Sir John 
Macdonald ever since the days of the Jesuits Estates agitation 
and did not return to its Conservative allegiance for several years 
after this time. 

Gradually, the Liberal party swung into line behind its leaders in 
support of freer trade "with the continent to which we belong" as 
Mr. Wiman unfortunately phrased It. The support was given in 
varying degrees and under differing names for the policy itself while 
the attacks upon protection developed renewed strength and were 
used as collateral to an aggressive campaign in favour of the Ameri- 
can trade idea. Sir Richard Cartwright, on March 14, 188S, moved 
in the House of Commons the following Resolution : 

"That it is highly desirable that the largest possible freedom of commercial inter- 
course should obtain between the Dominion of Canada and the United States and that 
it is expedient that all articles manufactured in, or the natural products of, either of the 
said countries, should be admitted free of duty into the ports of the other — articles 
subject to duties of excise or of internal revenue alone excepted. That it is further 
expedient that the Government of the Dominion should take steps at an early date to 
ascertain on what terms and conditions arrangements can be effected with the United 
States for the purpose of securing full and unrestricted reciprocity of trade therewith." 

This explicitly defined the new stand of the Opposition and pre- 
cipitated an issue which the Government met with an amendment 
proposed by Mr. George E. Foster, Minister of Finance, and couched 
in equally clear and explicit terms : " That Canada in the future, as 
in the past, is desirous of cultivating and extending trade relations 
with the United States so far as they may not conflict with the policy 
of fostering the various industries and interests of the Dominion 
which was adopted in 1879 ^""^ which has since received, in so marked 
a manner, the sanction and approval of the people." The amendment 
was duly carried, after prolonged discussion, and upon a party division 



500 TRADE AND TARIFFS AND UNRESTRICTED RECIPROCITY 

of 124 to 67. Later in the Session a similar Resolution to that of 
Sir Richard was moved by Mr. A. G. Jones — afterwards Lieutenant- 
Governor of Nova Scotia — and defeated ; while in the succeeding 
year, on March 5th, Sir Richard Cartwright took advantage of favour- 
able Commercial Union motions having passed the House of Repre- 
sentatives at Washington to again urge that steps be taken " for the 
purpose of securing full and unrestricted reciprocity of trade" with 
the Republic. 

Meanwhile, recognizing clearly, though not publicly, the difficulty 
of negotiating trade treaties, or making any commercial arrange- 
ment with the United States which would involve a preference 
against Great Britain through British plenipotentiaries, the Liberal 
leaders were uro-inorand advocatinor the Colonial right tonesjotiate inde- 
pendent!}- of Imperial authorities. On February 18, 1889, Sir Richard 
Cartwright embodied this collateral policy, or branch of the general 
party policy, in a motion which he presented to the House of Com- 
mons and which declared that " the Government and Parliament of 
Canada should acquire the power of negotiating commercial treaties 
with foreign States" and should be enabled, by Imperial permission, 
" to enter into direct communication with any foreign State for the 
purpose of negotiating commercial arrangements.." 

Such was the general issue before the people when the elections of 
1 891 were fought. There is no doubt that the Government, in the years 
between 1S87 and 1S91, under-estimated the progress of this move- 
ment and the growing strength of a free trade feeling in the country 
which had been fostered by the growth of commercial depression, by 
the continuous propaganda of the now active and fighting Opposi- 
tion, and by a strong belief amongst the farmers that protection had 
not been as beneficial to them as it should have been and that they 
might, perhaps, be helped by trying the new policy. Sir John Mac- 
donald saw clearly enough the American tendencies of the movement 



TRADE .1X1) T.IRIFJ'S AXD UXR/'STRfCTF.D KECIPROCITY 501 

and the inevitable toboggan slide towards annexation and away from 
Britain which would be created by any system of Continental com- 
mercial union ; and he appears at first to have thought that the mass 
of the people could see them as clearly as he did. Fortunately, a num- 
ber of men unconnected with, or indifferent to party affiliations recog- 
nized the danger of allowing things to drift and the history of the 
Imperial Federation League in Canada during these years is an active 
record of strong, steady opposition, in a stream of pamphlet and leaf- 
let literature and by a continuous succession of public meetings, to 
anything savouring of anti-British fiscal legislation. The League and 
its leaders did more than this. They provided an alternative policy, 
a better principle, and urged strenuously the new idea of a closer 
commercial relationship with the Mother-land. 

THE ELECTIONS OF 189I 

The situation, however, was a sufficiently serious one when Sir 
John Macdonald, early in 1891, decided to appeal to the country. 
He had been roused to the necessity of doing something In the pre- 
ceding year and no occurrence In his career better illustrates the 
natural tact and ^oXidc-sX finesse of the veteran leader than the nego- 
tiations Into which he had entered, in December 1890, with the Uni- 
ted States. There is little reason to suppose that he really expected 
success at a time when the Canadian Opposition was announcing its 
willingrness to eo much further In trade concessions than he would, or 
could, dream of doina: and when the United States leaders were 
pretty well known to be in favour of a complete commercial union 
between the two countries while opposed — as they had been since 
1866 — to any ordinary modification, or renewal, of the old Reciprocity 
Treaty. However, It was an exceedingly clever political stroke which 
followed the announcement of the dissolution of Parliament, on Feb- 
ruary 3, 1891, with the publication of a despatch sent by the Gov- 
ernor-General to the Colonial Secretary on the preceding 13th of 

27 



S02 TRADE AND TAklFFS AND UNRESTKICTED RECU'RUCiry 

December and which outlined the terms of certain negotiations into 
which his Ministers desired to enter with the American Government. 
It was proposed that a joint Commission, similar to that of 1S71, 
should be formed with power to deal with the following questions : 

1. Renewal of the Reciprocity Treaty of 1854-66 with neces- 
sary modifications. 

2. Re-consideration of the Fishery Treaty of 1S8S, which 
had been rejected by the United States Senate, with a view to reci- 
procity in fish and in the privileges of buying bait, trans-shipment of 
fish, etc 

3. Protection of mackerel and other fisheries on the Atlantic 
coast and in the inland waters of the country. 

4. Relaxation of the sea-board coasting laws of the Dominion 
and the Republic and also of those in force on the Great Lakes. 

5. Mutual salvage and saving of wrecked vessels. 

6. Arrangements for settling the boundary between Alaska and 
Canada. 

The indignation of the Opposition at this announcement showed 
its importance. Everything that could be done to minimize its value 
was done, however, even to the publication of a letter signed by Mr. 
James G. Blaine, the United States Secretary of State, declaring that 
only the very widest form of Reciprocity — the Opposition policy in 
fact — would be considered by the American Government. To some 
extent the effort was successful and, seeing that it was necessary to 
stimulate the sentiment of his own party and to rally around him an 
element which had become dissatisfied with the Liberal policy and its 
tendencies, Sir John Macdonald, for the first and last time in his 
career, issued a political Manifesto. It was published on February 8th 
and contained the most stirring appeal to British sentiment and Cana- 
dian loyalty which has been addressed, since the days of Brock, to the 
people of British America. 



TRADE AND TARIFFS AND UNRESTRICTED RECIPROCITY 503 

He declared the policy of the Conservative party to be one of 
fostering the resources of Canada by every possible means consistent 
with its position " as an integral portion of the British Empire." He 
denounced the Opposition policy of free trade with the United States 
as involvintr " among- other <jrave evils, discrimination against the 
Mother-country ; " and expressed his earnest belief that it would in 
that event "inevitably result in annexation to the United States." 
He grave strong reasons for believincj that the loss of revenue from 
American goods under such a policy would involve direct taxation of 
the people to the figure of at least $7,000,000. He declared that in 
consequence of the Canadian tariff against other countries having to 
be the same as that of the United States, in order to prevent the 
wholesale importation of goods by way of Canada under its existent 
lower grade of duties, the proposed policy meant the practical con- 
trol of the Canadian tariff at Washington. He appealed in ringing 
words to the loyalty of the people to past affiliations and traditions, to 
British institutions and ideals, to their affection for the throne and the 
flag of Empire and liberty. He concluded an Address which deserves 
a high place for its literary excellence, as well as for its historical signi- 
ficance, with a paragraph marked by pathos as well as patriotism : 

•'A British subject I was born — a British subject I will die. With my utmost 
strength, with my latest breath, will I oppose the 'veiled treason ' which attempts by 
sordid means and mercenary proffers to lure our people from their allegiance. During 
my long public service of nearly half-a-century I have been true to my country and its 
best interests, and I appeal with equal confidence to the men who have trusted me in 
the past and to the young hope of the country \vith whom rest its destinies in the 
future, to give me their united and strenuous aid in this my last effort for the unity of 
the Empire and the preservation of our commercial and political freedom." 

The Manifesto had an instant effect upon the situation and the 
declaration of being born and intending to die a British subject rang 
through the community like a slogan of war. " The old man, the old 



5<>4 Th'ADE A.\n /. Ih'fFFS AND UNRESTRlCTliD REC/Ph'OCITV 

flag, and the (jIcJ policy " became the party war-cry and echoed from 
the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the back-woods of Nova Scotia to the 

prairi(;s of ihii W^est.- 

Mr. Wilfrid Laurier, as the leader of the Liberal party, although 
Sir R. Cartwright had been the leader in the Reciprocity agita- 
tion from the first, promptly answered Sir John's Manifesto with an 
Address to the people of Canada which was issued on February 12th. 
In it he denounced the premature dissolution of Parliament as being 
intended to stampede the public into a hasty and unconsidered ver- 
dict ; declared the existing Franchise Acta measure of gross injustice 
and calculated insuthcienc)' ; arraigned the National Policy as injuri- 
ous to the farmer and a failure in stopping the migration of people to 
the States, or in promoting individual emplo)-ment and better wages; 
proclaimed his personal and party loyalty to the Crown and to British 
connection ; expressed the belief that, under the proposed reform of 
"absolute reciprocal freedom of trade between Canada and the Uni- 
ted States," direct taxation would be unnecessary and an assimilation 
of tariffs not inevitable. Upon the all-important point of discrimina- 
tion against Great Britain, under frei; trade with the United States, 
and the Conservative statement that it was involved by the very 
nature of things, he submitted a simple denial and the following sig- 
nificant but vague statement : 

" It <:innut lie expected, it were folly to expect, that the interests of a Colony 
should always be identical with the interests of the Mother-land. The day must come 
when, from no other cause than the development of national life in the Colony, there 
must be a clashing of interests with the Mother-land and, in any such case, much as I 
would regret the necessity, I would stand by my native land." 

In the contest which followed a keen and spirited interest was 
taken by the people and, as its issues developed in Imperial and inter- 
national importance, the press of the I'nited Kingdom, of the far- 
away Australasian Colonies and of the United States, made it a 




THE MARQUESS OF LORNE, K.T., G.C.M.G 

9th duke of ARGYLL 

Governor-General of Canada, 1878-83 



H. R. H. THE PRINCESS LOUISE 
MARCHIONESS OF LORNE 




CHARLES, LORD MONCK, G.C.M.G. 

Governor-General of Canada, 1867-68 



THE RIGHT HON. SIR JOHN YOUNG 

1st LORD LISGAR 

Governor-General of Canada, 1868-72 



TRADE AND TARIFFS AND UNRESTRICTED RECIPROCITY 507 

subject of critical comment and consideration. The result became 
more and more doubtful as the days progressed and party calls from 
all parts of the Dominion came to Ottawa for the personal presence 
of Sir John Macdonald. His health was not good, he had reached 
an age when some measure of rest and relief from responsibility and 
active campaigning was necessary, and his physicians warned him that 
to take a prominent part in the battle could only be done at the risk 
of his life. But he could not resist the pressure of popular demand from 
within his party, the personal conviction of how much depended upon 
the result, the knowledge that it was now in grave doubt. He, there- 
fore, threw himself with intense vigour into the campaign and, from 
his standpoint, not a moment too soon. 

The elements favourable to the Liberals consisted in the senti- 
ment already worked up on behalf of a wide reciprocity with the 
United States ; the depression among farmers caused by the McKin- 
ley Act ; the influence of Mr. Laurier's persuasive eloquence and 
pleasing personality — especially amongst French-Canadians; the 
dying, but still influential, efforts of the Equal Rights Association in 
Ontario ; the powerful work done by Mr. Mercier, who was still Premier 
of Quebec and who postponed an intended visit to Europe in order to 
retain his place beside " my esteemed chief, M. Wilfrid Laurier," as 
he declared at a mass meeting in Montreal on February gth ; the fact 
of sundry electoral scandals, implicating the Conservative party, hav- 
ing been made public during the last Session of Parliament ; the con- 
stant and scarifying criticisms of Sir Richard Cartwright ; the warm 
and hostile co-operation of nearly all the Provincial Premiers — includ- 
ing the pronounced influence of Mr. Oliver Mowat in Ontario, of Mr. 
Mercier In Quebec, of Mr. Greenway in Manitoba, of Mr. A. G. Blair 
of New Brunswick and of Mr. W. S. Fielding in Nova Scotia. 

The elements favourable to the Conservative party were, first and 
foremost, the magnetic, popular, personality of their leader as he once 



5oS TRADE AND TARIFFS AND UNRESTRICTED RECIPROCITY 

more came into close touch with the people ; the splendid support of 
Sir Charles Tupper, who had been called from England and his work 
as High Commissioner to help in this vital contest ; the assistance of 
Sir John Thompson, with his deliberate and convincing oratory, and 
of Hon. George E. Foster, with his more effective and popular style; 
the publication of correspondence, verging on treason, which had 
passed between Mr. Edward Farrar, the one-time Editor of the Toronto 
Mail and at this particular moment an editorial writer on the Liberal 
organ — TJie Torottto Globe ; the support given to the Opposition by 
Mr. Goldwin Smith and the consequent increase of suspicion regard- 
ing the loyalty of their policy ; the continued feeling of manufactur- 
ers in favour of protection and their natural fear of Unrestricted 
Reciprocity ; the rapidly-growing expression of a hitherto dormant 
but very real and strong loyalty to British connection in all parties 
and amongst all classes; the activity of a small band of Imperialists 
who were straining every nerve to develop antagonism to, and fear 
of the Continental trade idea. 

DE.VTH OF SIR JOIIX MACDONALD 

The result of the struggle was a victory for the Conservative 
chieftain and his Government by a majority of between twenty and 
thirty. Two members of the Ministry were defeated, Mr. C. C. 
Colby and Mr. (afterwards Sir) John Carling, and two leaders of the 
Opposition, Mr. A. G. Jones and Mr. Peter Mitchell. It was Sir 
John Macdonald's last political success. Against the earnest advice 
of his physicians, the veteran leader, now in his seventy-seventh year, 
had eone into the contest with an enercv which seemed marvellous- 
in one of his admittedly feeble frame. He had been everywhere 
urging on the struggle, putting life and soul into his supporters, 
arousing the enthusiasm of great audiences as only his magnetic per- 
sonality could have done, soothing differences and smoothing away 
obstacles with his curious combination of tact and personal charm. 



TRADE AND TARIFFS AND UNRESTRICTED RECIPROCITY 509 

giving to the campaign, in short, that swing of victory which was 
needed to overcome the many adverse circumstances of the moment. 
Without him the party would most certainly have been defeated and, 
knowing this, he had fought one more battle for what he believed to 
be the fundamental principles of Canadian nationality and progress 
— British connection and loyalty to the close and honourable union of 
the Dominion and Empire. 

His efforts in managing the campaign and addressing audiences 
almost daily for weeks — upon one occasion he spoke five times in the 
twenty-four hours — were too much for his physical strength and he 
came back to Ottawa to die. At first it was only reported that he 
needed rest and then, after the meeting of Parliament at the end of 
April, he was said to be unwell. But the serious attack did not come 
until the 29th of May, although there had been premonitions in plenty. 
Then, in a moment, the paralytic seizure came and stilled the busy 
brain, numbed the marvellous faculties and silenced forever the voice 
which had so lonof been the voice of Canada. Durlnor the week of anx- 
ious waiting which followed political lines were obliterated and the peo- 
ple of Canada stood beside that sick-bed at Earnscliffe where the great- 
est of the builders of the Empire, the wisest of Canadian leaders, lay 
fighting a last silent struggle with the most powerful of all foes. Par- 
liament had promptly adjourned, the Queen sent daily cables of 
inquiry, the people began to understand what a great figure was passing 
away, the politicians commenced to tremble for the future of the party 
which he had led and made almost synonymous with himself. On 
June 6th Sir John passed away and the mourning which followed 
throughout the Dominion was as remarkable in its intensity and per- 
sonal note of pain as the scenes surrounding the state funeral of the 
late Premier from Ottawa to his burial place at Kingston were notable 
for their splendour. During immediately succeeding years monuments 
were erected to his memory at Toronto, Kingston, Ottawa, Hamilton 



Sio TRADE AND TARII-FS AND UNRESTRICTED RECIPROCITY 

and Monlreal but it is historically safe to say that his most enduring 
memorial has since been found in the hearts of his fellow-countrymen. 

RESULTS OF THE ELECTION 

Politics were now in a turmoil. The late leader had been unable 
to suggest a successor during his last days but the man who should, 
properly, have followed him in power was his life-long friend and right- 
hand supporter — Sir Charles Tupper. His work for Confederation, 
his labours for Canadian Pacific Railway construction, his battles for 
the National Policy, his foremost place beside Sir John Macdonald in 
the fight against Unrestricted Reciprocity, all pointed him out as the 
legitimate leader of the party. But he was away in London again 
acting as High Commissioner ; it was thought by many that he would 
not care for the position ; he did not hold a seat in Parliament ; and 
he made no sign himself concerning the matter. Hence different 
wings of the party nominated their favourites. Principal Grant urged 
Sir Charles Tupper, as did many others ; Mr. Chapleau pressed the 
name, and justly praised the ability, of Sir John Thompson ; Le 
Monde and other French journals urged the prolonged service of Sir 
Hector Lansfevin and the fact of his beinjr the recocrnized leader of 
the party in Quebec ; there was talk of Mr. (afterwards Sir) W. R. 
Meredith, who for many years had led the Conservative Opposition 
in the Provincial Legislature of Ontario; there was a presentation of 
the claims of Mr. D' Alton McCarthy whose ability ami Imperialistic 
views overshadowed the memory of his past differences with the 
party. P'inally, it was announced that the Governor-General after a 
conference with Sir John Thompson and the Hon. J. J. C. Abbott — 
who had been Conservative leader in the Senate and was known as a 
man of wide constitutional knowledge and keen executive ability — had 
asked the latter to take the Premiership. 

His Government was much the same in composition as the pre- 
ceding one and it had no easy task before it. The corruptions and 



TRADE AXD TARIFFS AND UNRESTRICTED RECIPROCITY 5" 

slanders inevitably surrounding an Administration fourteen years old 
were all met as an avalanche of charge and denunciation during the 
first Session of the leadership of Mr. (soon to be Sir John) Abbott 
in the Senate, and of Sir John Thompson in the Commons. Under 
it Sir Hector Langevin disappeared from public position ; Sir Adolphe 
Caron had to fight for his political life ; Mr. J. G. Haggart had to 
meet serious charges as did Mr. J. A. Chapleau. It was the most 
arduous Session since Confederation and certainly the most unpleas- 
ant. It revealed the existence of carelessness in some of the Depart- 
ments and of considerable corruption in public life but it did not 
prove personal dishonesty or corruption against any of the Ministers. 
The Census of the Dominion had, meanwhile, been taken and had 
shown an increase of population from 3,686,000 in 1871 to 4,324,000 
in 1881 and to 4,829,000 in 1891. A re-distribution of seats and 
representation was, therefore, necessary and in April of the succeed- 
ing )ear Sir John Thompson introduced a measure to this end which 
finally passed after bitter Opposition denunciation as being a gerry- 
mander and "a plan for deliberately stifling the voice of the people." 
Meantime, the aftermath of the political struggle of 1891 had 
come in two very important events. On the day following the gene- 
ral elections a long letter was published from the pen of Mr. Edward 
Blake as addressed to his constituents in West Durham some time 
before election day. It explained minutely, though not always 
clearly, his reasons for retiring from public life at that juncture and 
declining- their re-nomination for Parliament. It denounced the 
National Policy in great detail and in the severest terms and painted 
so dark a picture of the country, and its present and future position, 
as to make the document a veritable triumph of pessimism in thought 
and language. Then the writer turned to the subject of Unrestricted 
Reciprocity and declared that it would give the country the blessings 
of a measure of free trade greater than was otherwise attainable ; 



512 TRADE AND TARIFFS AND UNKF.STklCTED RECIPROCITY 

would advance the Dominion's most material interests and its most 
natural and largest industries ; would create an influx of capital and 
population and, in a word, give to the country its chiefest needs — 
men, money and markets. 

But it would, also, he declared, involve differential duties against 
the United Kingdom and the rest of the world ; it would cause great 
gaps in the revenue and leave the country with an immense deficit 
which could only be met by direct taxes — and these he believed to be 
impossible under existing conditions of popular opinion ; it would 
require " as to the bulk by agreement and as to much, from the 
necessity of the case, the substantial assimilation in their leading fea- 
tures, of the tariffs" of Canada and the United States; it must of 
necessity be a permanent arrangement in order to conserve financial 
credit and industrial interests and this was impossible without a 
control of the Canadian tariff by the American Congress — in which the 
Dominion "would have much less influence in procuring or prevent- 
ing changes than she would enjoy did she compose several States of 
the Union." He concluded an elaborate, able and in parts logical 
presentation of the whole political issue in the late campaign with the 
followine words : 

"The tendency in Canada of unrestricted free trade with the States, high duties 
being maintained against the United Kingdom, would be towards political union ; and 
the more successful the jilan the stronger the tendency, both by reason of the commu- 
nity of interests, the intermingling of populations, the more intimate business and social 
connections, and the trade and fiscal relations amounting to dependency which it would 
create with the States ; and of the greater isolation and divergency from Britain which 
it would produce ; and also, and especially, through inconvenience experienced in the . 
maintenance and apjirehensions entertained as to the termination, of the Treaty." 

This deliverance came like a thunderbolt upon the Liberal party. 
Had it been published when written, and before election day. Sir John 
Macdonald would, probably, have had the largest majority in Canadian 
history. As it was, this presentation of the real issue in its naked shape 



TRADE A\D TARIFFS AND UNRESTRICTED RECIPROCITY 513 

shocked the inherent loyalty of Canadian Liberalism and opened the 
eyes of many an honest and honourable advocate of the policy which 
Sir John had so strenuously denounced in words deemed by his oppo- 
nents to be the mere echo of partisan thoughts and fears. The prac- 
tical result was seen in the bye-elections which followed in 1892, from 
the unseating of a number of members, and in which the Conserva- 
tives swept everything before them with swinging majorities. 

During this period a further and final incident in the history of 
this trade and fiscal movement took place. In pursuance of their 
pledges to the people at the elections the Canadian Government 
arranged, after many delays on the part of American authorities, for 
a Conference to discuss international relations. Messrs. James G. 
Blaine and J. W. Foster represented the United States and Mr. 
Mackenzie Bowell, Sir John Thompson and Mr. G. E. Foster, the 
Dominion. After a prolonged discussion — February 1892 — upon 
trade and reciprocity matters it was found impossible to come to any 
understanding. Mr. Blaine insisted absolutely upon the free admis- 
sion into Canada of American manufactures and declared that an 
arrangement could only be consummated " by making the tariff uni- 
form for both countries and equalizing the Canadian tariff (against 
Great Britain, &c. ) with that of the United States." The statements 
of the American negotiators were most explicit and are recorded in 
an official document * signed by the Canadian negotiators and 
endorsed by Sir Julian Pauncefote, the British Ambassador at Wash- 
incrton, in the words : " I concur in the above Minute of Proceedingrs." 

This was the end of the Unrestricted Reciprocity, or Commer- 
cial Union movement. The Liberal leaders turned to the safer paths 
of simple tariff denunciation and the advocacy of a generally freer 
trade. These were embodied in a Resolution presented to the Com- 
mons by Sir Richard Cartwright on February 16, 1893. During the 

* Canadian Sessional Papers, Volume 26th, Number 52, 1892. 



SH TRADE AND TARfFFS AND UNRESTiaCTED KF.Cir'KOCITY 

succeeding year, on March 28th, the same leader once more presented 
a motion which, nominally, constituted the Liberal fiscal platform in 
the elections of 1896 : " That the highest interests of Canada demand 
the adoption of a sound fiscal policy which, while not doing injustice 
to any class will promote domestic and foreign trade and hasten the 
return of prosperity to our people ; that, to that end the tariff should 
be reduced to the needs of honest, economical and efificienc government, 
should have eliminated from it the principle of protection to particular 
industries at the expense of the community at large, and snould be 
imposed for revenue only ; that it should be so adjusted as to make 
free, or bear as lightly as possible upon, the necessaries of life and to 
promote freer trade with the whole world — particularly with Great 
Britain and the United States." The motions were, of course, defeated 
by party divisions but they clearly indicated the gradually-changing 
lines of policy. 

On June 20, 1S93, a Convention of Liberals had been held at 
Ottawa to define the position of the party and it had taken lines simi- 
lar to those embodied in the above motion. The Resolutions passed 
declared that the tariff of the Dominion " should be based, not as it 
is now, upon the protective principle, but upon the requirements of 
the public service;" denounced the National Policy as having devel- 
oped monopolies, trusts and combinations, decreased the value of 
farm lands, oppressed tlie masses in favour of the few, checked immi- 
gration, driven people out of the country and impeded commerce; 
proclaimi-;d [M'otection to be " radically unsound and unjust to the 
masses of the people ; " declared the necessity of tariff changes which 
should afford "substantial relief from the burdens under which the 
country labours." References were also made to the desirability of 
Reciprocity, the success of the old-time Treaty of 1864; and the belief 
of the party that a fair measure might still be obtained which should 
include "a well-considered list of manufactured articles." During 




THE EARL OF ABERDEEN 

G.C.M.G., LL.D., D.C.L. 

Goveruor-General uf Canada, 188;i-J>9 



HIS EXCELLENCY, THE EARL OF MINTO 

G.C.M,G. 

Governor-General of Canada in 1900 





THE MARQUESS OF LANSDOWNE, G.C.M.G. 
Governor-General of Canada, 1SS3-SS 



LORD STANLEY OF PRESTON, G.C.B. 

lliTH f.AKL OK DERBY 

Governor-Gcneral of Canada, 18SS-9S 



TRADI'. AXD TARIFFS AND UNRESTRICTED RFCIPROCI I'Y 5"7 

the next three years, however, Reciprocity dropped largely out of 
Liberal advocacy and in the elections of 1896, though the quotations 
given constituted the nominal policy of the Opposition, still less was 
heard of it and nothing at all of the unrestricted variety. Other 
issues had come up and upon them the battle was fought and, this 
time won by Liberalism and Laurier. 

In the succeeding four years of Liberal rule Reciprocity came to 
the front upon only one occasion. An effort was made to obtain 
some arrangement of this character during the meetings of the Joint 
Hich Commission which were held in Ouebec and Washington in 
August, September and October 1898. It was a far-reaching Con- 
ference, however, and other issues which intervened finally terminated 
the proceedings without any definite decision being reached. So far 
as trade relations between Canada and the United States were con- 
cerned it was found by the Government of Sir Wilfrid Laurier, as it 
had been by that of Sir John Macdonald, that Reciprocity was not 
obtainable upon terms compatible with the honourable maintenance of 
Canada's place in the British Empire. A Commercial Union such as 
Mr. Blaine had proposed in 1892, was still possible so far as the 
Republic was concerned, but still impossible for any Canadian Gov- 
ernment to consider. During 1898 a further stage in the development 
of the Dominion away from the United States and toward Great 
Britian was marked by the establishment of the Preferential tariff by 
which British goods were allowed admission at a rate of 25 percent. 
lower than foreign products. The general elections which took place 
on November 7th, 1900, and resulted in the return of the Laurier Gov- 
ernment to power, were fought with hardly a reference on either 
side to the once all-important Reciprocity idea and with a tacit admis- 
sion on both sides that a maintenance of the principle of protection 
was essential to the present state of Canadian development. 



CHAPTER XXVI 
Manitolja and the School Question 

THE story of Manitoba's progress during the years which suc- 
ceeded the Fort Garry rising and the admission of the youthful 
Province into Confederation on July 15th, 1870, is an oft-told 
tale to Canadians. The slow gfrowth, at first, of the little town at the 
junction of the Red River and Assiniboine which took the place 
of the Fort around which such severe stru^Sfles asfainst nature, and 
amongst men, had raged since the days of Selkirk ; the coming of the 
Canadian Pacific Railway and the rapid rise of Winnipeg into a city 
of 40,000 people ; the steady accretion of farmers in the vast and fer- 
tile prairies stretching away beyond the distant horizon ; the phenome- 
nal " boom," typical in its inception and progress of all western 
periods of expansion, which came to Manitoba in 1879 and 1880, and 
merged the solid investments of thousands of Ontario business men in 
fantastic land schemes and non-existent prairie villages of which sur- 
veys had often not been made ; the reaction whicii followed and the 
slow, but steady and substantial progress which, in time, came to the 
Province ; these things are pretty well known to the people of to-day. 

NOVEL COXIHTIONS OX THE FKO.XTIEK 

Less clearly is the political condition of the country known, or the 
wild and free spirit, drawn from the experiences of a pioneer life which 
had not been brought into close touch with civilization, fully under- 
stood. The ox-cart, even now, touches the electric street car or the 
luxurious coach of the modern railwav. The fringed and faded Indian 
rubs shoulder with the white farmer and the commercial traveller for 

some Eastern firm. The unsettled and nomadic Half-breed hunter 

518 



MANITOBA AND THE SCHOOL QUESTION 519 

looks across the table of his hotel at the latest tourist from Piccadilly 
or habitue of Hyde Park. The forts of the Hudson's Bay Company 
still stand in occasional loneliness, but are more and more coming into 
contact with farm-houses of prosperous settlers, or face to face with 
the growing villages of an increasing population. The buffalo has 
gone, but his bones are yet picked up on the boundless prairie and 
sold by dirty-looking squaws on the clean platforms of a continental 
railway. 

CHANGES IN MANITOBA 

The white people of Manitoba have themselves greatly changed 
since the stormy days of 1S70. The pioneer life of farmers who 
have drifted in by tens, and hundreds, and thousands, to till the rich 
and easy soil of the prairie has been one of inevitable hardship at 
times, and especially so in seasons of unseasonable frost, or occasional 
flood, or unwelcome drought. They have encountered serious dis- 
couragement from a severe climate, not at first understood, and they 
have often suffered from intense solitude and hard labour, while dan- 
gers from cold and storm have not been few. But all these things 
were really nothing to the perils of the French or Loyalist 
pioneers of Eastern Canada from wild animals or wilder Indians ; and, 
whatever they may have been, the conditions have now been conquered 
and out of them has come a people delighting in the life of the prairie 
and the cold of its winters, loving the fresh and fragrant air of their 
healthful Province, instinct with western vigour and progressiveness, 
and pulsating with strong belief in its future progress. 

Of a kind with the complexities of general development has been 
the political record of Manitoba and out of it came a problem which 
was destined to shake the parties and principles of Canadian public 
life to their very roots. For many years the local politics were of a 
purely parish nature, and government consisted in legislating for 
schools scattered over a large area amongst isolated settlers, providing 



^10 MANirOllA .IN/) run SCHOOL QUESTION 

the beginnings of municipal life, practising the forms of constitu- 
tionalism, and guarding the interests of the small though growing 
population of farmers. Alfred Boyd, M. A. Girard, H. J. H. Clarke. 
R. A. Davis and John Norquay succeeded each other as Prime Minis- 
ter. Then came the era of railway construction, the boon preferred 
by Eastern Canada to its Provincial sisters in the \V(-st. With the 
Canadian Pacific came also cjuestions of monopoly, of the right to 
control competitive lines, of the necessity of competition and control 
of rates, of the location of branch lines and all the complications inci- 
dent to a time of public expansion and the sudden growth of trans- 
portation interests. These problems have all been settled, or are 
now settling themselves, in one form or another. There has, at times, 
been friction between the Provincial Government and the Dominion 
authorities but never violent trouble ; except, perhaps, in the matter 
of the Red River Railway. 

Three or four men have developed in the public life of the Prov- 
ince who may, in diverse wa)s, be described as remarkable characters. 
Archbishop Tache was a pioneer of religious progress, a man of 
intense missionary zeal, of strenuous labour for the cause of his 
Church, of wide and powerful public influence. Prom the day, in 
1845, when he started by boat, or o.\-team. for the far-away banks of 
the Red River, he traversed every part of the vast field of the North- 
West and in varied degrees of hardship and toil established Roman 
Catholicism as one of the chief religious features of the new country. 
He became a Bishop in 1S50, received the higher honour in 1871, and 
died in 1894. With the public questions of the day in the growing. 
Province he was closely associated, from the share he took as media- 
tor in the Riel rising of 1870 and his place in the conflict and contro- 
versy created by the same irrepressible personage in 1885, to the 
forcible position assumed by him in the Manitoba School question of 
1S90. 



MANITOBA AND THE SCHOOL QUESTION 521 

Archbishop Machray has held a very similar place in the pioneer 
history of the Church of England in the North-West from the time 
of his consecration, in 1865, to the present day. His intense personal 
energy and earnest piety have made a deep impression upon its peo- 
ple and denominational and educational progress. He has not, how- 
ever, been nearly so striking a political figure as his great ecclesiastical 
and religious rival. A curious contrast to both these men was the 
Hon. John Norquay. A Half-breed by birth he impressed his virile, 
forceful disposition upon the politics and progress of Manitoba, 
became its Prime Minister in what may be termed the growing time 
of Provincial youth, and remained in power from 1878 to 1887. His 
moderation of view won him respect and popularity, as a young man, 
in the troubles of 1869-70, and the same qualities served him well 
in later years ; while his huge, uncouth frame and curious personality 
and strange manners made him an unique figure in general politics. 
After a brief interregnum filled by the Premiership of D. H. Harrison, 
he was succeeded in 1888, by the Hon. Thomas Greenway — a farmer 
by profession, a Liberal in politics, and in no way remarkable person- 
ally, except for the fact that he held office from that time until the 
end of the century. 

The extraordinary personal feature of his Administration, how- 
ever, and the most unique product of Canadian western politics, was the 
Hon. Joseph Martin, who acted as Attorney-General from 1887 to 1891. 
A Radical in politics, he had a rough, uneducated personality and was 
gifted with tremendous vigour in speech and pluck in action combined 
with a perfect passion for political fighting. Absence of actual and 
defined principles made him, in practice, a demagogue ; while his 
natural ability rendered him an acute antagonist and a useful, though 
untrustworthy, ally. After he had won an election for Greenway by 
the abolition of Separate Schools in Manitoba and laid, incidentally, 

a line of dynamite for the destruction of the Conservative Government 

28 



5«2 MANITOBA AND THE SCHOOL QUESTION 

at Ottawa, he moved to British Columbia. There he served a 
short term of office as Attorney-General, suddenly resigned the posi- 
tion and overthrew the Government he had belonged to, formed 
another and, in 1900, was badly beaten at the polls. His career 
is of interest as revealing a type of politician which only Western com- 
munities in a crude state of development could create or tolerate. A 
much more attractive character was that of Sir John Christian Schultz. 
A pioneer in the fur trade, in the practice of medicine and in political 
development, he shared the ups and downs of Manitoba life to the 
uttermost and served several terms in the Dominion House of 
Commons, had held a place in the Senate, and had acted for seven 
years as the Lieutenant-Governor of his Province. 

THE INFL.VTIOX OF 1 88o 

The central incidents of modern Manitoba history are the " infla- 
tion " of 1880 and the School question. The former was a condition 
of affairs only possible in a very new country, during the prevalence 
of what are called good times, and through a sudden increase of land 
values arising from some such cause as the proposed construction of 
the Canadian Pacific Railway. Visions of a great and growing Prov- 
ince beyond anything that was reasonable and possible seemed, in 
1880, to be born in a night out of long-continued indifference and 
ignorance. People who had known nothing of, and cared less for, 
the vast possibilities of the wheat-belt of the West seemed suddenly 
and fully conscious of its e.xistence and of what might be done by the 
building of a railway through its fertile areas. Aladdin's lamp was 
to be as nothing in comparison with the effect of this factor in Pro- 
vincial development. Population, wheat-fields, cities and towns, 
industries and wealth, presented themselves before the eyes of the 
investing public. The " boom " that followed was of a most distinctly 
American type. The price of building lots in Winnipeg rose above 
the value of land centrally located in Montreal, or Toronto. All kinds 



MANITOBA AND THE SCHOOL QUESTION 523 

of land schemes were floated in the other Provinces as well as in the 
local capital. Towns and cities grew up (on paper) as by magic and 
thousands of people in Ontario, especially, sold solid securities and 
took over all their little savings, or even mortgaged salaries and pro- 
perties, in order to invest them in prairie village lots of which a first 
survey had hardly been made. 

The result was a natural and inevitable one. For a time every 
thing prospered and every kind of public enterprise went ahead. 
Population did increase a little and money poured into the country 
for investment. Land values rose all over the southern part of the 
Province. But, in the autumn of 1882 the end came, the bubble of 
inflation broke and millionaires in prospect found themselves paupers 
in fact. A great part of the small community became insolvent, 
the banks lost heavily, investors in Ontario and elsewhere suffered 
severely and Manitoba was given a serious set-back. Then came 
the troubles of 18S5, on the Saskatchewan, which re-acted upon 
the Prairie Province in reputation and credit and helped further to 
hamper the progress of settlement. Gradually, however, these diffi- 
culties were overcome ; steadily the richness of its soil and the quali- 
ties of its wheat made headway in the public mind of the Dominion ; 
slowly and surely the completion of the Canadian Pacific promoted 
its prosperity by making the Province known abroad, by bringing in 
new settlers, by facilitating the transport of products, by bringing it 
into the arena of national interests and progress. 

ORIGIN OF THE MANITOBA SCHOOL QUESTION 

Then came the Manitoba School question. At first it was 
largely a Provincial issue. It soon developed, however, into a sort of 
Dominion irritant. Finally it became a political storm of the most 
pronounced seriousness and one which threatened public peace as 
only a semi-religious question can do in a country such as Canada. 
There have been frequent struggles over sectarian education in the 



S24 MANITOBA AND THE SCHOOL QUESTION 

Provinces of British America. Prior to 1863 Ontario was torn with 
dissensions upon this point and the Hon. Georg^e Brown had led a 
stormy agitation against Separate Roman Catholic Schools. Confeder- 
ation settled the issue to some extent through a compromise by which 
the Protestant minority in Quebec and the Catholic minority in 
Ontario were guaranteed a secure system of Separate Schools. It was 
re-opened for a time, in the latter Province, by alleged new and 
increasing privileges to these schools at the hands of the Mowat 
Government and, during some years, Mr. W. R. Meredith and Mr. 
D'Alton McCarthy took high ground in the matter. But the agita- 
tion came to nothing. In New Brunswick the abolition of Separate 
Schools, not long after Confederation, raised a question which politi- 
cians wisely refused to make serious capital out of and which the 
Courts finally disposed of by declaring the action legal. 

In Manitoba the situation has been very different and the result 
much more important and interesting. The system in vogue there was 
not the same as elsewhere in Canada; the Province did not, in this 
respect, enter the Dominion upon the same terms as the older parts 
of the country ; its circumstances and local conditions have changed 
more rapidly and completely than anywhere else. In iS;o. when the 
country came into Confederation, its small population was about 
equally divided between Protestants and Catholics and, as a large 
influx of French-Canadian settlers was then confidently expected, it 
was generally believed that this balance would be fairly well preserved. 
There is practically no question that the Red River people of that 
time and of the Catholic faith thought that their religious and educa- 
tional customs — they could hardly be termed a system — would be- 
conserved. 

As a matter of fact, when authority was given to the new Legis- 
lature, by the Manitoba Act of 1870, to deal with education, it was 
done, as in all the Provinces, subject to the preservation of rights 



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MANITOBA AND THE SCHOOL QUESTION 527 

existing at the time of the Union ; although no law, ordinance or 
regulation was technically in force in the much-troubled Red River 
Settlement of the moment. The controversy of the future was to 
turn, therefore, upon how far the " practice " then prevalent was a 
privilege and right under the terms of Union. Archbishop Tache, 
who was present at the birth of educational facilities in the North- 
West and who for so long rocked the cradle of their early develop- 
ment, declared with emphasis at a later period that there had been, in 
1870, a number of effective schools for children and that some of these 
were regulated and controlled by his own Church, some by different 
Protestant denominations. The means required for the support of 
the Catholic portion of the schools were supplied partly by fees and 
partly out of Church funds. During this early period neither Catho- 
lics nor Protestants had interest in, or control over, any schools but 
those pertaining to their respective beliefs. 

In 1871, shortly after joining the Dominion, a law was passed 
by the Manitoban Legislature which established an organized system 
of denominational education in what were called the common schools. 
By this Act, twelve electoral divisions, comprising in the main a 
Protestant population, were to be considered as constituting 
twelve Protestant school districts under the managfement of the 
Protestant Section of a Provincial Board of Education. Similarly, 
twelve districts, made up chiefly of a Roman Catholic population, 
were constitued an equal number of Catholic school districts and were 
placed under the control of the Catholic Section of the Board of 
Education. Each school division raised the contribution required, in 
addition to the amount given from the public funds, in such manner 
as might be decided at its annual meeting. It was, at first and in 
some respects, an application of the Quebec system to a new Province. 
But the conditions were, of course, greatly different and that differ- 
ence increased radically as the Protestant part of the population grew 



528 MANITOBA AND THE SCHOOL QUESTION 

in numbers. I\Ioclifications in tlic system were introduced in 1873 
and 1876 suited to changed and changing conditions, but the general 
principle was still maintained. Nor did the system, as a whole, work 
badly or cause any serious friction, in these years, between the differ- 
ent religious elements of the people. 

Some agitation had arisen in 1876 owing to the gradual growth 
of villages and towns and the general increase of what might be 
termed, somewhat tentatively, an urban population. But it was set- 
tled by the amendments of that year which gave the school districts 
facilities for the issue of debentures and the erection of suitable 
buildings. The Provincial Board was also re-constituted in a satis- 
factory manner. For years after this time matters progressed with- 
out sectarian trouble until, in 1S90, there were 62S Protestant schools 
and 91 Catholic schools in the Province — the Government grant still 
being divided proportionally between the two sections of the Educa- 
tion Board. Meanwhile, however, sectarian feeling had been growing 
in Quebec and Ontario and been fanned into a passing flame by the 
development in public life of such men of opposite and varied charac- 
teristics as Mercier and IMcCarthy, Laurier and Meredith. The ebb- 
tide of the Riel and Jesuits Estates questions reached Manitoba, 
the instinct of the demagogic politician seized the mind of Mr. Joseph 
Martin, and a favourable and popular moment was taken, in the Ses- 
sion of 1S90, to abolish the existing Separate School system. 

The principle of National and unsectarian schools is a most 
desirable one where it can be put in force without actual injustice to 
those who disagree with it. But the incidents surrounding this par- . 
ticular action of the Greenway-Martin Government were unpleasant 
and aeeressive and the lecfislation itself assumed to the minoritv the 
aspect of a repudiation of Provincial and Dominion pledges. The 
protests of the Roman Catholic Church in Manitoba, however, and 
the energetic onslaughts of Archbishop Tache upon the Government, 



MANITOBA AND THE SCHOOL QUESTION 529 

in a series of historical letters published in the Winnipeg Free 
Press, were serious enough in their effect upon the Catholic popula- 
tion elsewhere in Canada to soon raise the question far above the 
local arena. At the same time the minority had not sufficient local 
strength to overcome the large Protestant majority or to prevent Mr. 
Greenway from obtaining a popular victory and endorsation, in the 
ensuing elections of 1892. 

Under the new Public School system the Board of Education 
was, of course, completely changed and all school taxes, whether 
derived from Protestant or Catholic, were devoted to the maintenance 
of the schools of the Province without any religious distinction. The 
Provincial Cabinet became the Board of Education, assisted by an 
Advisory Board made up of four or six members appointed by the 
Government, two elected by the teachers of the Province, and one 
selected by the University of Manitoba. The Department, or Gov- 
ernment, was to perform all Executive work in connection with 
education ; the Advisory Board was really to be a Committee of 
experts controlling all matters of a technical nature such as teacher's 
qualifications, text-books, standards of admission and promotion in 
the schools, classification examinations, and the forms of religious 
exercise. Local districts, with trustees chosen by popular vote, were 
established. Upon the whole this system has since then worked well, 
the standard of education generally has advanced, the number of 
schools have increased to 1,018 in 1897 and the Provincial grant has 
risen to $190,000. 

But to the Roman Catholics both the legislation and system were 
extremely obnoxious. They believed there, as in Quebec and Ontario, 
in sending their children to a school where religion was a first consid- 
eration, secular education a secondary matter. They objected to the 
Protestant religious exercises, no matter how deleted they might be, 
^nd wanted schools of their own. These they proceeded to maintain 



530 MANITOBA A.\'D THE SCHOOL QUESTION 

by private contributions and despite the fact of having to pay double 
educational taxes. Naturally, the question was soon being widely dis- 
cussed and considered in other Provinces where Catholics also had 
rights and privileges which they believed to be guaranteed by the 
pact of Confederation. 

THE SCHOOL ACT IN DOMINION POLITICS 

The first step taken in the matter, in a Dominion sense, was a 
strenuous effort to obtain the disallowance of the Act as an infringe- 
ment of the rights of a Provincial minority. A petition, dated March 
6, 1 89 1, was presented to the Federal Government signed by the 
Roman Catholic Archbishops and Bishops of the Dominion and 
declaring that the Manitoba School Act — and the subsidiary measure 
abolishing dual language privileges in the same Legislature — were 
" contrary to the dearest interests" of a large portion of the Queen's 
loyal subjects ; contrary to " the assurances given during the negotia- 
tions" which determined the entry of the Province of Manitoba into 
Confederation ; contrary to the terms of the British North America 
and Manitoba Act ; contrary to the principles of public good faith. 

A little later, on April 4th, the French press of Quebec published 
a pastoral letter issued by Cardinal Taschereau and the hierarchy of 
the Province and which had been read in all the Catholic churches. 
It declared that the legislation in question would "destroy the faith of 
the Catholic children " of Manitoba and would " despoil the Church 
of her sacred rights." It urged once more " the control of the Church 
over the education of Catholic children " in the schools and called 
upon all Catholics "to pray and to work 'for justice." Following, 
however, the precedent which they had set themselves in the Jesuits 
Estates case the Government resisted this religious pressure, and the 
even more potent political pressure which was a natural accompani- 
ment, refused to interfere with the Provincial legislation in the matter 
and allowed the two measures to go into operation. In connection 



MANITOBA AND THE SCHOOL QUESTION 531 

with the School Act Sir John Thompson, as Ministei of Justice, 
submitted a Report to the Government advising the allowance of the 
measure in due course. It was dated March 21, 1891 and afterwards 
became the cause of keen controversy and important results. He 
reviewed the powers of the Provincial Legislature and declared that 
the matter should be left to the Courts. If, finally, the minority in 
Manitoba were worsted in the lesfal warfare the time mig^ht come for 
the Dominion Government to interfere under the terms of that por- 
tion of Section 22 of the Manitoba Act which declares that " an 
appeal shall be to the Governor-General-in-Council from any Act or 
decision of the Legislature of the Province, or of any Provisional 
authority affecting any right or privilege of the Protestant or Roman 
Catholic minority of the Queen's subjects, in relation to education. 
Parliament may make remedial laws for the due execution of the provi- 
sions of this Section and of any decision of the Governor-General-in- 
Council." 

Meanwhile, local efforts along the legal line had been strenuous. 
An appeal was early entered in the Manitoba Courts by Mr. J. K. 
Barrett, on behalf of the Catholic rate-payers of Winnipeg, against 
two City by-laws which imposed a rate of taxation upon men of all 
religious faiths for the support of the public schools. In this test 
case it was claimed that the old law was still in force owing to the 
new one beingr unconstitutional and because of the 22d Section of the 
Manitoba Act, under which the Province entered the Dominion, 
and which declares that " nothing in any such law (Provincial) 
shall prejudicially affect any right or privilege with respect to deno- 
minational schools which any class of persons have by law or practice 
in the Provinces at the Union." The Manitoba Government main- 
tained, as against this plea, that a Separate School system was not 
really in existence at that time and that, therefore, the Roman Catho- 
lic minority possessed no guarantee whatever. On February 22, 1891, 



532 MANITOBA AND THE SCHOOL QUESTION 

the Court of Queen's Bench of the Province sustained the vahdity of 
the Act, three Judges being favourable and one opposed — the latter 
a French-Canadian and Catholic. Appeal was at once taken to the 
Supreme Court of Canada and, in October following, judgment was 
given by that body declaring the Act vJtra vires, allowing the appeal 
and quashing the City by-laws. The decision was unanimous and 
Chief Justice, Sir William Ritchie, in presenting it, held that the Act 
of Union prohibited the abolition of Separate Schools by Provincial 
Legislatures. 

There was, of course, much e.xcitement in Winnipeg over the 
result and the Greenway Government at once announced its intention 
of carrying the case to the Judicial Committee of the Imperial Privy 
Council. Late in July, 1892, the decision of the highest Court of Appeal 
in the Empire was duly rendered. It upheld the Manitoba Courts, 
declared the legality of the Act of 1890, and removed the judgment of 
the Canadian Supreme Court. An agitation immediately began for an 
appeal to the Government for remedial legislation and Dominion 
interference. This was the actual commencement of the storm which 
was to rage during four years and to eventually shatter the Conserv- 
ative Government at Ottawa between the two rival forces of Catholic 
and Protestant sentiment. Sir John Thompson's Report of 1891 
became the centre of intense discussion and Section 22 of the Mani- 
toba Act a subject of Dominion policy and politics. Strong language 
was used on both sides in connection with the possibility of the Gov- 
ernment at Ottawa interfering in the matter. The Liberal organs 
and speakers in Ontario demanded respect for Provincial rights and 
proclaimed Sir John Thompson a slave to the interests and influence 
of his Church. The Toronto Mail, which was still a nominally inde- 
pendent paper — though bitterly opposed to the Conservative Govern- 
ment in reality — declared that " the tribunal of last resort has pro- 
nounced Manitoba free ; and free that Province shall be if the English 



MANITOBA AND THE SCHOOL QUESTION 5^3 

population has any voice in the Government of this country." Mr. 
Mercier, who was still striving to regain his lost place and power in 
Quebec, tried to inflame religious sentiment for his own ends and, at 
Montreal, on February 23, 1S93, urged the people of the Province to 
" put aside all the divisions and hatreds of the past and join in a fra- 
ternal union of 2,000,000 of French-Canadians against the oppression 
of the other Provinces." 

While all these sounds of strife were in the air the Government 
had appointed a Sub-Committee of their own members, composed of 
Sir John Thompson, the Hon. Mackenzie Bowell and the Hon. J. A. 
Chapleau, to hear the appeals from the Manitoba minority and to lis- 
ten to Mr. J. S. Ewart O. C. of Winnipeg on behalf of the petitioners. 
Mr. Ewart and Mr. D'Alton McCarthy presented the opposite sides 
of the case with a good deal of strength and skill and, on January 6, 
1893, the Sub-Committee submitted a synopsis of the discussion to 
the Dominion Government and recommended that another hearing 
should be given in which the Manitoba Cabinet might be represented. 
The latter Government refused, however, to consider the question as 
in any way an open one, or to send any representative. The Report 
also indicated certain points for consideration in the question as to 
whether the Governor-General-in-Council really had the power to 
grant remedial legislation under existing conditions and these subjects 
were subsequently brought before the Supreme Court of Canada in 
the form of six questions of a constitutional character. 

They were dealt with on February 26, 1894, by a judgment of 
interpretation which held that the Roman Catholic minority had no 
ground upon which to solicit Dominion legislation. The Court stood 
three to two upon the question and, curiously enough, Mr. Justice 
King who, as Premier of New Brunswick, had many years before 
been instrumental in abolishing the Separate Schools of that Province 
supported the Catholic contention while Mr. Justice Taschereau, a 



534 MANITOBA AND THE SCHOOL QUESTION 

French-Canadian, opposed the claims of his own co-religionists. 
From this decision an appeal was taken to the Imperial Privy Council 
and, in January, 1895, a decision was announced declaring that the 
Dominion Government, under the Confederation Act, possessed the 
right to grant the remedial legislation which had been described as 
constitutional and possible in the Report of the Minister of Justice 
in 1 89 1 

That distinguished lawyer and statesman had, meanwhile, become 
Premier of Canada in December 1892 and had died suddenly and 
tragically at Windsor Castle in December 1894. Sir Mackenzie 
Bowell ruled in his place and there was much trouble and perplexity 
in the Government upon the School Question. Parliament and the 
press were also vigorously discussing the question and the possible 
results of the comingf decision. An interestingr debate had taken 
place in the House on March 6, 1893 when this second reference to 
the Privy Council was announced and Mr. J. Israel Tarte had pro- 
posed a motion disapproving the action of the Government. Sir 
John Thompson, in an able and elaborate speech, defended the policy 
from a constitutional standpoint and Mr. D'Alton McCarthy who 
represented, probably, at this time a very large body of public opinion, 
answered the Minister with force and vigour. He denounced the 
Government for its delay in settling a vexed question. The decision 
one way or the other was vital. " It was whether the Province of 
Manitoba with a population of 150,000, of whom not more than 
20,000 were Roman Catholics, was to have imposed upon it against 
its will a Separate School system." Mr. Wilfrid Laurier, in the' 
course of a denunciatory speech along general lines, made some 
remarks which afford interesting reading a few years later and were 
uttered in connection with the charcre that the limited religious teach- 
ing in the schools of Manitoba made them really Protestant schools. 
" If," said he, "this be indeed true; if under the guise of public 



MANITOBA AND THE SCHOOL QUESTION 537 

schools the Protestant schools are being continued and Roman 
Catholic children are being forced to attend these Protestant schools ; 
I say, and let my words be heard by friends and foes over the length 
and breadth of the land, the strongest case has been made out for 
interference and the Roman Catholics of Manitoba have been put to 
the most infamous treatment." A little later, however, when the 
genial Liberal leader visited the Prairie Province he refused to say 
definitely whether this supposition was a fact or not. 

CABINET CRISIS AND THE REMEDIAL ORDER 

From the day in January, 1895, when the judgment of the 
Imperial Privy Council was received at Ottawa, events moved rapidly, 
the political sky became more and more stormy, the controversy more 
critical in its various aspects — constitutional, sectarian and partisan. 
The issue was one which had become so difficult to handle that only a 
great statesman such as Sir John Macdonald could have evolved any- 
thing like peace out of the chaos of conflict which had now developed. 
And even the greatest ability and mental force might have been use- 
less without the tact and savoir /aire v^hich. Sir John had possessed in 
such a pronounced degree. There were men of high ability in the 
Cabinet, but they did not possess the combination of qualities required, 
and the disorganization grew steadily greater. They were also 
opposed, in the person of Mr. Laurier, by a man whose charm of 
manner and grace of bearing constituted a character of growing 
influence, and one in which ability and tact were combined to a 
degree unequalled since the days of Sir John Macdonald himself. 
Meanwhile, the French-Canadian members of the Cabinet wanted 
remedial legislation and many of the English members disapproved of 
it. The result of the difference was so pronounced as to soon become 
public property in all kinds of distorted forms. Finally, in March, 
1895, it was decided to unite upon what was termed a Remedial Order. 
This document commanded the Provincial Government, under the 



538 MANITOBA AND THE SCHOOL QUESTION 

terms of the constitution and in accordance with the decision of the 
Privy Council, to remedy the just grievances of the minority in 
Manitoba and to restore any educational rights and privileges which 
may have been taken away from them — under pain of Dominion 
legislation to the same end. 

At the same time as this Order was issued Sir Charles Hibbcrt 
Tupper, Minister of Justice, urged the bringing on of the general 
elections immediately and there is every probability that if this 
course had been pursued the party disaster of 1896 would not have 
occurred. His advice was not followed and a somewhat hasty resig- 
nation of his office, as a consequence, was not accepted. Manitoba 
absolutely refused to obey the Remedial Order and early in July a 
Cabinet crisis occurred. Messrs. J. A. Ouimet and A. R. Angers, with 
Sir Adolphe Caron, resigned office. For a few days all was confusion 
and then Mr. George E. Foster, who was acting as leader in the Com- 
mons — Sir M. Bowell being leader in the Senate — announced on the 
9th of the month that Mr. Ouimet and Sir A. P. Caron had withdrawn 
their resignations ; that immediate communication would be entered 
into with the Manitoba Government with a view to effecting some set- 
tlement ; and that if no satisfactory result could be reached the House 
would be asked in the ensuing January to legislate along the lines of 
the Remedial Order. Por the moment the crisis was over though the 
calm was a deceitful one and the political soil was still breeding storms. 

The Manitoba Government had not the slio-htest intention of 
losing a strong party position and the prospects of a successful Pro- 
vincial election campaign, as well as the chance of hurting a Conserva- 
tive Dominion Government, for reasons of public peace and quietness. 
They would, therefore, do nothing. Rumors also continued to grow 
regarding dissensions in the Dominion Cabinet and, on December 
nth, the Hon. N. Clarke Wallace, Comptroller of Customs and 
leader of the Orangemen of Canada, resigned ofiice. Within a few 



MANITOBA AND THE SCHOOL QUESTION 539 

weeks the Manitoba Government advised the Federal authorities dis- 
tinctly and definitely that they would have nothing to do with the 
re-establishment of Separate Schools in any form and then appealed 
to the people for approval. They were given, in January 1896, a 
sweeping majority and, on February 27th, the new Legislature, by 31 
to 7 votes, protested against any Dominion interference in Provincial 
school affairs. Meanwhile, the Dominion Parliament had been 
opened on January 2nd, and the announcement made that legislation 
would be shortly introduced to carry out the terms of the Remedial 
Order. It had hardly more than met, however, before another and 
far more serious Cabinet crisis occurred. Seven Ministers — Messrs. 
George E. Foster, John G. Haggart, W. B. Ives, W. H. Montague, 
A. R. Dickey, J. F. Wood and Sir Charles Hibbert Tupper — resigned 
on the 5th of the month. 

SIR CHARLES TUPPER AND THE ELECTIONS OF 1 896 

It was simply a long-continued disagreement and disorganization 
coming to a head. Sir Mackenzie Bowell was hardly a strong enough 
leader to hold together a Cabinet of conflicting opinions and personal 
differences in the face of a public crisis and a most complex national 
issue. He was a man of the highest character and administrative 
ability but would have been the first to disclaim the qualities of a 
great leader. The trouble lasted for some days and ended in Sir 
Charles Tupper, who had recently come from England to further the 
proposed fast Atlantic Line of Steamships, giving up his High Com- 
missionership, taking a position in the Ministry and the lead in the 
House of Commons. To the latter he was shortly afterwards elected 
from Cape Breton Island. It was a brave and unselfish thing to do 
and the task before him was enough to appal a much younger and 
more ambitious man. The other Ministers rejoined the Government 
and Parliament was soon able to proceed with the discussion of the 
Remedial Bill which was introduced, as promised, on February iith. 



540 MANITOBA AND THE SCHOOL QUESTION 

Early in March Sir Charles Tupper moved the second reading 
of the measure and, on April 27th, the retirement of Sir M. Bowell 
and his own accession to the Premiership were announced. Mean- 
time, Sir Donald A. Smith, the Hon. Alphonse Desjardins and the 
Hon. A. R. Dickey had been sent to Winnipeg as a Commission to 
try and effect a compromise or settlement of the School question. 
But the mission was unsuccessful and, unfortunately for the Conserva- 
tive party, Sir Charles Tupper was equally unsuccessful in getting 
the Remedial Bill through Parliament. The Opposition obstructed 
its progress until the time came when the House had to be adjourned 
and the general elections held. The Tupper Government went to 
the country largely, though not of their own desire, upon this issue 
and met with an overwhelming defeat. Mr. Laurier became Premier 
and, in November 1S96, an arrangement was made between the new 
Liberal Government of Canada and that of Manitoba which the party 
in power termed a successful compromise and absolute settlement 
and which the new Opposition described as a veritable farce. 

It was to the general efifect that the non-sectarian character of 
the schools should be maintained and provision made for bi-lingual 
teachinor where desired and for Catholic religious teaching: within cer- 
tain hours for children of that faith. Mutterincrs of dissatisfaction were 
still heard in Quebec, however, and in March 1S97 the Pope issued an 
Encyclical instructing the Bishops of the Province to suspend all fur- 
ther e.xpression of opinion or action until His Holiness had investi- 
gated the matter thoroughly. The result was the despatch of Mg'r 
Merry del \'al to Canada as Papal Ablegate and the practical disap- 
pearance of the issue from Canadian politics after his conferences - 
with the hierarchy and return to Rome. 



CHAPTER XXVII 
The South African War and Imperialism in Canada 

THE Contingents which went from Canada to participate in the 
South African War of 1S99-1900 were the effect and not the 
cause of Canadian Imperialism. The sentiment surrounding 
the war, in the Dominion as in every other part of the Empire, was 
the arousing of a dormant but undoubtedly existent loyalty and could 
not, therefore, be the cause of an expressed and evident devotion to 
Crown and Empire. Yet the war did service which perhaps nothing 
else could have done in proving the existence of this Imperial 
sentiment to the most shallow observer, or hostile critic ; in arousing 
it to heights of enthusiasm never dreamt of by the most fervent 
Imperialist; in rendering it possible for statesmen to change many a 
pious aspiration into practical action or announced policy ; in making 
the organized defence of the Empire a future certainty and its some- 
what shadowy system of union a visible fact to the world at large. 

POSITION OF CANADA IN THE EMPIRE 

So far as Canada was concerned its action seems to have been 
partly a product of the sentiment of military pride which was first 
aroused by the gathering together of Canadian troops to subdue the 
insurrection of 1885 ; partly a consequence of the growth of a 
Canadian sentiment which is local in scope and character, yet curiously 
anxious to make the Dominion known abroad and peculiarly sensitive 
to British opinion and approbation ; partly an outcome of genuine 
loyalty amongst the people to British institutions and to the Crown 
as embodied in the personality and prestige of the Queen ; partly a 
result of the shock to sensitive pride which came from seeing the soil 

29 541 



542 THE SOUTH AFRICAN WAR— IMPERIALISM IN CANADA 

of the Empire in South Africa invaded by the Boers and the position 
of the motherland in Europe threatened by a possible combination 
of hostile Powers. Upon the surface this last-mentioned cause was 
the principal and most prominent one. 

There was no considerable precedent for the proffer of troops to 
the Imperial Government. During the Crimean War nothing had 
been done by the then disorganized Provinces except the voting of a 
sum of money for widows and orphans and the enlistment of the 
Hundredth Regiment. In the days of the Trent Affair and the 
P"enian raids, the Fort Garry rising and the Saskatchewan rebellion, 
volunteers were available ; but it was for the purpose of fighting upon 
Canadian soil in defence of Canadian homes. 

PROFFER OF TROOPS 

During the Soudan War of 1S85 a small body of Canadian volun- 
teers and voyageurs, paid from I mperial funds and enlisted by request of 
the British Commander, had gone up the Nile in Lord Wolseley's expe- 
dition and under the immediate command of Lieut.-Colonel F. C. Deni- 
son. But there was not much public interest in the matter and it hardly 
created a ripple upon the slow-rolling stream of Canadian thought. 
A large force, amid much local enthusiasm, had also departed from 
the shores of New South Wales. No doubt these precedents had 
some effect, but a greater factor was the one elsewhere mentioned of 
an increasing military feeling which had been first aroused amongst 
the people as a result of the battles of 1885 upon the North-West soil 
and the sufferings, privations, and casualities amongst the soldiers 
who had then gone to the front. 

More important, however, as a factor in this and other develop- 
ments of an Imperial nature was the work done by the Imperial 
Federation League in Canada during the years following 1885. That 
organization and its leaders had drawn persistent attention in speeches, 
and pamphlets, and magazines, and newspaper articles, to the change 



TliE SOUTH AFRICAN WAR— IMPERIALISM IN CANADA 545 

of sentiment which had come over the pubHc men of Great Britain in 
connection with Empire affairs ; to the fact that the Manchester 
School of unpleasant memory was practically dead and that Mr. 
Goldwin Smith was but a lonely voice crying in the wilderness the 
doctrines of a degraded and decadent system of thought ; to the 
melancholy picture presented by the few Canadian believers in the 
old-time advocacy of Colonial independence as they stood garbed in 
the cast-of clothes of Manchester ; to the greatness of the Empire in 
extent, in population, in resources, in power, and in political use- 
fulness to all humanity ; to the necessity and desirability of closer 
union. 

The effect of the League's work * in England and in Canada 
became indirectly visible in many directions and strongly aided a 
development along Imperial lines which has since become marked 
and continuous. Canada took part in the Indian and Colonial Exhi- 
bition of iS86, in the Imperial Conference of 1887, in the organiza- 
tion of the Imperial Institute, in the calling of the Colonial Confer- 
ence of 1894 at Ottawa, in a number of movements looking to 
Imperial cables, Imperial penny postage, Imperial tariffs and Imperial 
steamship lines. But nothing of a military nature was advocated 
and the point was, in fact, almost tabooed. The leaders of the League 
in London, in Melbourne, or in Toronto, were equally afraid to touch 
a portion of the general problem which was obviously so far in 
advance of Colonial public opinion as to render Its advocacy danger- 
ous to the cause. The events of 1899 were, therefore, all the more 
remarkable. 

That a struggle should break out in far-away South Africa and 
create in Canada and Australasia an instantaneous intensity of interest 
comparable only to that felt by the American people of the North in 

♦ As an active officer of the League during almost the whole of its history in Canada the author is in a position 
to know something of the work done and influence wielded by the organization. 



544 THE SOUTH AFRICAN n'AR—l^tPERIAl.lS.y IS CANADA 

their conflict with the South is one of the most curious incidents in 
history. The fact of its being a war in which the territory of the 
Empire was threatened was the real reason for this stirring expres- 
sion of loyal sentiment though the advance of public opinion in this con- 
nection is shown when we remember that in 1S62 Canadian soil was 
menaced by the Trent affair and in 1866 by the Fenian raids without 
eliciting any special signs of sympathy from Australasia ; while in 1878 
the Empire of India was threatened with invasion by Russia, and again 
at the time of Pendjeh incident, without creating any great stir in 
either Canada or Australia. So with the peril which faced Natal in 
1879 from the blood-stained Impis of Cetywayo. In the case of the 
Transvaal embroglio, however, Canada felt a special attraction from 
the first on account of its being a racial matter and one of a kind 
which the Dominion had encountered more than once and disposed 
of successfully. The diplomatic contest between Mr. Chamberlain 
and President Kruger and Sir Alfred Milner was therefore watched 
w:thkeen attention and there was considerable isolated talk of volun- 
teering for the front in case of war — though this was checked by a 
feeling- that the strucrijle would be short and insignificant. 

INTEREST SHOWN IN Till; IMTERIAI. SITU.-VTION 

Still, there was amongst military men a strong under-current of 
desire to raise some kind of volunteer force for active service and, in this 
connection, Lieutenant-Colonel S. Hughes, M. P., was particularly 
enthusiastic. He introduced the subject in Parliament, on July 12th, 
while negotiations were still pending between President Kruger and 
Mr. Chamberlain. The result was that, despite the fact of Queens- 
land having already offered troops and his own expression of opinion 
that 5,000 men would readily volunteer in Canada, it was thought 
best not to take any immediate action, and the Premier, Sir Wilfrid 
Laurier, expressed the hope and belief that, in view of the absolute 
justice of the Uitlanders' claims, recognition would eventually be 




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rUK SOUTH AFRICAN WAR-IMPERIALISM IN CANADA 547 

given them and war averted. On July 31st more definite action was 
taken, and tlie followingr Resolution, moved in the House of Commons 
by Sir Wilfrid Laurier and seconded by the Hon. G. E. Foster in the 
absence, but with the approval of. Sir Charles Tupper as leader of 
the Opposition, was carried unanimously : 

"That this House has viewed with regret the complications which have arisen in 
the Transvaal Republic, of which Her Majesty is Suzerain, ifrora the refusal to accord 
to Her Majesty's subjects now settled in that region an adequate participation in its 
Government. That this House has learned with still greater regret that the condition 
of things there existing has resulted in intolerable oppression and has produced great 
and dangerous excitement among several classes of Her Majesty's subjects in Her South 
African possessions. That this House, representing a people which has largely suc- 
ceeded by the adoption of the principl^; of conceding equal political rights to every 
portion of the population, in harmonizing estrangements and in producing general 
content with the existing system of Government, desires to express its sympathy with 
the efforts of Her Majesty's Imperial authorities to obtain for the subjects of Her 
Majesty, who have taken up their abode in the Transvaal, such measure of justice and 
political recognition as may be found necessary to secure them in the full possession of 
equal rights and liberties. " 

The members, after passing the motion, sprang to their feet and 
saner " God Save the Oueen," amid a scene of strikino- enthusiasm 
which was duplicated a little later in the Senate. Following this 
expression of feeling, Colonel Hughes endeavoured, upon his own 
responsibility, to raise a regiment for foreign service and, in doing so, 
naturally came into collision with the head of the militia — -Major- 
General E. T. H. Hutton. The result of this enthusiastic rashness 
was, of course, failure in the attempt, though at the same time he was 
able to afford a distinct indication of the sjeneral feelincf in favour of 
something being done should war break out. Leading papers took 
up the subject and approved the sending of a force in case of neces- 
sity and, on October 2nd, a few days before the war began, a large 
and representative meeting of Militia officers was held in Toronto 



54S THE SOUTH AFRICAN WAR— IMPERIALISM IN CANADA 

and the following Resolution passed with unanimity ami enthusiasm 
on motion of Lieutenant-Colonels George T. Denison and James 
Mason: "That the members of the Canadian Military Institute, 
feeling that it is a clear and definite duty for all British possessions to 
show their willinpfness to contribute in the common defence in case of 
need, express the hope that, in view of the impending hostilities in 
South Africa, the Government of Canada will promptly offer a con- 
tingent of Canadian Militia to assist in supporting the interests of our 
Empire in that country." 

On the following day the Prime Minister was interviewed at 
Ottawa and expressed the opinion that it would be unconstitutional 
for the Militia, or a portion of it, to be sent out of Canada without 
the permission of Parliament, and that it would take some weeks to 
call that body together. Sir Wilfrid Laurier declared* that " There 
is no doubt as to the attitude of the Government on all ques- 
tions that mean menace to British interests, but in this present case 
our limitations are very clearly defined. And so it is that we have 
not offered a Canadian Contingent to the Home authorities." Mean- 
time, however, the matter had been under consideration, all the inde- 
pendent offers to serve from individuals or regiments had been duly 
forwarded to the Colonial Office, and each had received the stereo- 
typed reply that, while negotiations were in progress, no further troops 
were required. 

Public sentiment in Canada soon proved too strong for what 
mio-ht have been, in other circumstances, a legitimate constitutional 
delay. On September 27th Sir Charles Tupper, in a speech at Hali-. 
fax, offered the Government the fullest support of the Conservative 
Opposition in the sending of a Contingent, and, on October 6th, 
telegraphed the Premier to the same effect. The British Empire 
League in Canada passed a Resolution declaring that the time had 



•Toronto Globe, October <th, 1899. 



THE SOUTH AFRICAN WAR—IMPERIALISM IN CANADA 549 

come when all parts of the Queen's dominions should share in the 
defence of British interests, and the St. John Telegraph — a strong 
Liberal paper — declared, on September 30th, that " Canada should 
not only send a force to the Transvaal, but should maintain it in the 
field." The Montreal Star sought and received teleorams from the 
Mayors of nearly every town in the Dominion endorsing the proposal 
to despatch military assistance to fellow-subjects in South Africa. Mr. 
J. W. Johnston, Mayor of Belleville, represented the general tone of 
these multitudinous messao-es in the words: "It is felt that the 
Dominion, being a partner in the Empire should bear Imperial 
responsibilities as well as share Imperial honours and protection." 
The Toronto Globe — the leading Ontario Liberal paper — also sup- 
ported the proposal, and soon the country from Halifax to Van- 
couver was stirred as it had not been since the North-west Rebellion 
of 1885 — perhaps as it has never been in the sense of covering the 
entire Dominion. 

ATTITUDE OF FRENCH-CANADIANS 

There was, inevitably, some opposition, and it was largely voiced 
by the Hon. J. Israel Tarte, Minister of Public Works in the Dominion 
Government. It was not apparently a note of disloyalty ; it was 
simply the expression of a lack of enthusiasm and the magnifying of 
constitutional dangers or difficulties. No one in Canada expected the 
French-Canadians, amongst whom Mr. Tarte is a party leader, to 
look upon the matter with just the same warmth of feeling as 
actuated English-Canadians ; and very few believed that the absence 
of this enthusiasm indicated any sentiment of actual disloyalty to the 
Crown or the country. The people of Quebec had not yet been 
educated up to the point of participation in British wars and Imperial 
defence ; they were, as a matter of fact, in much the same position 
that the people of Ontario had been in ten or fifteen years before. The 
influences making for closer Empire unity could never in their case 



Sso THE SOUTH AFRICAN WAR— IMPERIALISM IS CANADA 

include a racial linker evolve from a common langruaore and literature. 
The most and best that could be expected was a passive and not dis- 
tinctly unfriendly acquiescence in the new and important departure 
from precedent and practice which was evidenced by the announce- 
ment, on October 12th, that a Canadian Contingent had been accepted 
by the Imperial Government and was to be dispatched to South 
Africa. 

There was no active opposition to the proposal except from a 
section of the French-Canadian press edited by Frenchmen from Paris, 
and from a rash young Member of Parliament who resigned his seat 
as a protest and was afterwards re-elected by acclamation — both 
parties deeming it wisest to treat the matter as of no importance. 
Mr. Tarte, himself, eventually fell into line with his colleagues, but 
with the public announcement that he did not approve the principle 
of sending troops abroad without Parliamentary sanction ; that he 
had obtained the Government's approval to an official statement that 
this present action was not to be considered as a precedent ; and that he 
thought the only way to adequately meet similar situations in future 
was by definite and permanent arrangement with the Imperial author- 
ities and representation in Imperial Councils. Upon the subject as 
a whole his attitude was certainly logical and loyal, but in effect it 
was untimely, unpopular and unnecessary. And the continued utter- 
ances of his son's paper — La Patric of INIontreal — were of a nature cal- 
culated to irritate loyal sentiment and to arouse serious misapprehen- 
sion amongst French-Canadians. 

However, the feeling of the country generally was too fervent to 
permit this obstacle having anything more than an ephemeral and pass- 
ing influence. And any opposition which might exist amongst French- 
Canadians assumed an essentially passive character. Toward the end 
of October an already announced pledge from an anonymous friend* 

* This generosity was afterwards found to emanate from the evcr-gencroiis Lord Stt«tbcon&. 



THE SOUTH AFRICAN WAR— IMPERIALISM IN CANADA 551 

of Sir Charles Tupper's to insure the life of each member of the 
Contingent to the extent of $1,000 was redeemed and ; on October 
24th, the following message was received through the Secretary of 
State for the Colonies : " Her Majesty the Queen desires to thank 
the people of her Dominion of Canada for their striking manifesta- 
tion of loyalty and patriotism in their voluntary ofTer to send troops 
to co-operate with Her Majesty's Imperial forces in maintaining her 
position and the rights of British subjects in South Africa. She 
wishes the troops God-speed and a safe return." 

THE FIRST CONTINGENT FOR SOUTH AFRICA 

The first Contingent of one thousand men steamed down the 
St. Lawrence from Quebec on October 30th, after farewell banquets 
to the officers and an ovation from immense crowds in the gayly deco- 
rated streets of the "Ancient Capital." For weeks before this date 
little divisions of 50, or 100, or 125 men had been leaving their 
respective local centres amidst excitement such as Canada had never 
witnessed before. St. John and Halifax, on the Atlantic coast, were 
met by Victoria and Vancouver, on the shores of the Pacific, in a 
wild outburst of patriotic enthusiasm. Toronto and Winnipeg 
responded for the centre of the Dominion and, at the Quebec " send 
ofT," there were delegations and individual representatives from all 
parts of the country. Every village which contributed a soldier to 
the Contingent also added to the wave of popular feeling by marking 
his departure as an event of serious import, while Patriotic Funds of 
every kind were started and well maintained throughout the country. 
It was, indeed, a manifestation of the military and Imperial spirit 
such as Canadians had never dreamed of seeing, and for many months 
the words upon every lip were those of the popular air — " Soldiers of 
the Queen." To quote the Hon. F. W. Borden, Minister of Militia 
and Defence, at the Quebec banquet on October 29th: " This was 
the people's movement, not that of any Government or party ; it 



552 THE SOUTH AFRICAN WAR— IMPERIALISM IN CANADA 

emanated from the whole people of Canada and it is being endorsed 
by them as shown by the words and deeds of the people at all points 
where the troops started from." The Earl of Minto, as Governor- 
General, in bidding official farewell to the troops on the succeeding 
day, expressed the same idea, and added, in words of serious impor- 
tance when coming from the Queen's Representative and bearing,' 
indirectly, upon the much-discussed question of Government hesitancy 
in making the first offer of military aid, that : 

"The people of Canada had shown that they had no inclination to discuss the 
quibbles of Colonial rcsponsibilty. They had unmistakably asked that their loyal 
offers be made known and rejoiced in their gracious acceptance. In so doing surely 
they had opened a new chapter in the history of our Empire. They freely made 
their military gift to the Imperial cause to share the privations and dangers and glories 
of the Imperial army. They had insisted on giving vent to an expression of senti- 
mental, Imperial unity which might, perhaps, hereafter prove more binding than any 
written Imperial constitution. " 

The principal officers of the Contingent were its commander, 
Lieutenant-Colonel \V. D. Otter, who had seen active service in the 
North-west Rebellion, Lieutenant-Colonel Lawrence Buchan, Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel O. C. C. Pelletier, Major J. C. McDougall and Major 
S. J. A. Denison, who was afterwards appointed to Lord Roberts' 
Stafif. The troopship Sardinian arrived at Cape Town on the 29th 
of November, and the Canadians were given a splendid reception — 
Sir Alfred Milner cabling Lord Minto that: "The people here 
showed in unmistakable manner their appreciation of the sympathy 
and help of Canada in their hour of trial." The Royal Canadian 
Regiment of Infantry, as the Contingent was called, at once went up 
to De Aar, and later on to Belmont, the scene of Lord Methuen's 
gallant fight. From here a portion of the Canadian troops took part 
in a successful raid upon Sunnyside, a place some distance away, 
where there was an encampment of Boers. A number of the enemy 
were captured, but the incident was chiefly memorable as the first 



THE SOUTH AFRICAN WAR-lMPERrALISM IN CANADA 553 

time in liistory, as well as in the war itself, when Canadians and Aus- 
tralians have fought side by side with British regular troops. Mean- 
while, public feeling in Canada seemed to favour the sending of further 
aid, and its feasibility was more than shown by the thousands who 
had volunteered for the first Contingent, over and above those 
selected. But it was not until some of the earlier reverses of the.war 
took place that the offer of a second Contingent was pressed upon 
the Home Government. On November 8th, however, it was declined 
for the moment and a week later Mr. Chamberlain wrote the follow- 
ing expressive words to the Governor-General : 

"The great enthusiasm and the general eagerness to take an active part in the 
military expedition which has unfortunately been found necessary for the maintenance 
of British rights and interests in South Africa have afforded much gratification to Her 
Majesty's Government and the people of this country. The desire exhibited to share 
in the risks and burdens of empire has been welcomed not only as a proof of the staunch 
loyalty of the Dominion and of its sympathy with the policy pursued by Her Majesty's 
Government in South Africa, but also as an expression of that growing feeling of the 
unity and solidarity of the Empire which has marked the relations of the Mother- 
country with the Colonies during recent years. " 

A SECOND CONTINGENT IS SENT 

On December i8th, events in South Africa and the pressure of 
loyal proffers of aid from Australia and elsewhere induced the Imper- 
ial Government to change their minds, the second Contingent from 
the Dominion was accepted, and once again the call to arms resounded 
throughout Canada. The first troops had been composed of infantry, 
the second were made up of artillery and cavalry. Eventually, it was 
decided to send 1,220 men, together with horses, guns, and complete 
equipment, and they duly left for the Cape, in detachments, toward 
the end of January and in the beginning of February. A third force of 
400 mounted men was recruited in the latter month and sent to the 
seat of war fully equipped, and with all expenses paid, through the 
personal and patriotic generosity of Lord Strathcona and Mount 



554 THE SOUTH AFRICAN WAR— IMPERIALISM IN CANADA 

Royal, the Canadian High Commissioner in London. In addition to 
" Strathcona's Horse," another independent force of 125 men was 
offered in similar fashion by the British Columbia Provincial Govern- 
ment and duly accepted at London and Ottawa, though for local 
reasons of political change never despatched ; while a movement was 
commenced to proffer an organized Dominion Brigade of lo.cxxj men, 
if required. 

Little wonder, therefore, when such a popular spirit was shown, 
and when the anxiety to enlist and the influence used to obtain a 
chance of going to the front were greater than men usually show to 
obtain positions of permanent financial value, that Field Marshal, Lord 
Roberts, shortly after his appointment to South Africa, should have 
cabled his expression of belief that " the action of Canada will always 
be a glorious page in the history of the sons of the Empire. I look 
for g^reat things from the men she has sent and is sending to the 
front." Meantime, even the slightest opposition to the policy of 
aiding the Empire had died out — in fact, its assertion would have 
been dangerous, or at least unpleasant, and when Parliament met 
early in February the Government announced its intention of ask- 
ing a vote of $2,000,000 for expenses in the despatch of the Con- 
tingents and for the payment after their return, or to the heirs 
of those who were killed, of an addition to the ordinary wage of the 
British soldier. 

This brief description of the events leading up to and illustrating 
Canada's action during an eventful period may be concluded by a 
quotation from the speech of the Hon. G. \V. Ross, Prime Minister ■ 
of Ontario, at a banquet given in Toronto on December 21st, to Mr. 
J. G. H. Bergeron, M.P., of Montreal — a French-Canadian who had 
expressed in fervent terms what he believed to be the loyalty of his 
people to the British Crown. Mr. Ross declared in emphatic and 
eloquent language that : 




FIELD MARSHAL LORD ROBERTS AND FOUR CANADIAN OFFICERS WHO SERVED 
WITH DISTINCTION IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN WAR 



THE SOUTH AFRICAN WAR— IMPERIALISM IN CANADA 557 

" Itis not for us to say that one or two Contingents should be sent to the Trans- 
vaal, but to say to Great Britain that all our money and all our men are at the disposal 
of the British Empire. It is not for us to balance questions of Parliamentary procedure 
when Britain's interests are at stake but to respond to the call that has been sent 
throughout the whole Empire and to show that in this western bulwark of the Empire 
there are men as ready to stand by her as were her men at Waterloo. It is not for us 
to be pessimists, but to have undying faith in British power and steadily to maintain the 
integrity of her Empire. I hope that the present strife may soon pass, and that, at its 
close, Canadians will feel that they have done their duty to the flag that has protected them 
and under whose paternal Government they have prospered in the past. Their motto 
should be ' Canada and the Empire, one and inseparable, now and forever. ' ' ' 

The men despatched from Canada, as already stated, num- 
bered 3,000 altogether. They included the Royal Canadian Regi- 
ment under Colonel Otter, the Canadian Mounted Rifles, Strath- 
cona's Horse and some Batteries of Field Artillery. The ist Bat- 
talion of the Rifles was commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel F. L. 
Lessard, the 2nd Battalion by Lieutenant-Colonel L. W. Herchmer 
and afterwards by Lieutenant-Colonel T. B. D. Evans. Strath- 
cona's Horse was commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel S. B. Steele 
and the Field Artillery by Lieutenant-Colonel C. W. Drury. They 
were all good officers and Colonel Otter, especially, won a high 
reputation for the efficiency and discipline of his Regiment, the largest 
distinct Canadian body at the front. The men of all these forces 
saw much service and experienced much privation. The Royal Cana- 
dian Regiment, or portions of it, .shared in the skirmish at Sunnyside, 
in the far more important battles around Paardeberg and in the capture 
of Cronje. 

For their gallantry in this latter fight, the impetus which they 
gave to the Boer general's surrender and the position they took and 
held beside the greatest historic regiments of the Mother-land, the 
Canadians won immediate and lasting fame. Lord Roberts eulogized 
them publicly, cables of congratulation came to Canada from the 



558 THE SOUTH AFRICAS WAR-IMPERIALISM IN CANADA 

Queen and Lord Wolseley, Mr. Chamberlain and Sir Alfred Milner 
and, as it were in an hour, Canada appeared to take its proper place 
in the defence system of the Empire. These things do not really 
happen in such an instantaneous fashion but, as the roar of explosion 
follows the making of the cannon, the manufacture of its powder and 
shot and its loading in an effective manner, so the charge of the 
Royal Canadians at Paardeberg revealed to the world in a moment 
the existence of that unity of sentiment and Imperial loyalty which 
had been developing for years in the backwoods and cities of 
Canada or in the bush and the civic centres of Australia. 

The Regiment took part in the famous march to Bloemfontein 
and in the further campaign toward Kroonstadt and Johannesburg 
into Pretoria. They were brigaded with the Gordons and other 
Highland regiments for a time and were then placed in the 19th 
Brigade under Major-General H. L. Smith-Dorrien who, on July i6th 
issued an official Order of historic interest in which he stated that : 
"The 19th Brigade has achieved a record of which any infantry 
might be proud. Since the date it was formed, namely, the 12th of 
February, it has marched 620 miles, often on half rations and seldom 
on full. It has taken part in the capture of ten towns, fought in 
ten general actions and on twenty-seven other days. In one period 
of thirty days it fought on twenty-one of them and marched 327 
miles. The casualties have been between four and five hundred and 
the defeats tiil." Meanwhile, the Canadian Mounted Rifles had been 
attached to Sir Redvers Buller's force and under the more immediate 
command of Major-General E. T. H. Hutton. They took part and, 
later on the Strathcona's, in the conflicts and incidents of the march 
from Natal to Pretoria and the North and upon several occasions won 
distinguished mention from their commanders. 

One of those incidents which brightened this war by its evidences 
of heroism was the holding of an advanced post at Horning Spruit 



THE SOUTH AFRICAN WAR— IMPERIALISM IN CANADA 559 

by four men of " D." Squadron, Mounted Rifles, against some fifty 
Boers. Two of tliem were killed and two wounded but the post was 
held. General Hutton in afterwards writing Lord Minto (on July 
2, 1900) described the action as showing "gallantry and devotion to 
duty" of a high order, and went on to say that the North-West Mounted 
Police — to which these men had originally belonged — " have been 
repeatedly conspicuous in displaying the highest qualities required of 
a British soldier in the field." The " C." Battery of the Royal Canadian 
Artillery had, meantime, been sent round by way of Beira and Portu- 
guese territory, through Rhodesia, to join Colonel Plumer's Column 
in the relief of Mafeking. With a Queensland Contingent they 
shared in the hardships of a long and difficult journey and arrived at 
Mafeking, after a brilliant march of thirty-three miles, just in time to 
contribute materially to the rescue of its heroic little garrison. 
They had journeyed from Cape Town, by sea and land, over 3,000 
miles, in thirty-three days — partly by ship, partly by marching, partly 
by mule waggons and partly by train. 

Individual incidents of bravery were numerous in all the Contin- 
gents and the losses by death, or wounds, and the suffering from 
enteric fever or other diseases very great. Private R. R. Thompson 
of the Royal Canadian Regiment won the Queen's Scarf — one of 
which Her Majesty had specially knitted for a representative of each 
of the four chief external portions of her Empire. Sergeant A. H. 
L. Richardson of Strathcona's Horse was awarded the Victoria Cross 
for gallantry in action. Captain H. M. Arnold of the Royal 
Canadians died from wounds received while leading his men at Paar- 
deberg. Lieutenant H. L. Borden, son of the Minister of Militia, 
and Lieutenant J. E. Burch of St. Catharines, were killed while lead- 
ing their men with pronounced bravery in another action. Lieuten- 
ant M. G. Blanchard of the Royal Canadians, and who afterwards 
joined the Derbyshires, Lieutenant F. V. Young of the Mounted 



56o THE SOUTH AFRICAN WAR-IMPERIALISM IN CANADA 

Rifles, Captain C. A. Hensleyof the 2nd Dublin Fusiliers, Lieutenant 
J. W. Osborne of the Scottish Rifles, Lieutenant C. C. Wood of 
the North Lancashires, and Lieutenant J. L. Lawlor of the 6th 
Inniskilling Dragoons were amongst the other Canadians killed in 
the war. In September, 1900, when the struggle was drawing to a 
close, the Canadian casualties of killed, or who had died of wounds 
or disease, were 123. 

Others had distinguished themselves in different ways. Lieuten- 
ant-Colonel E. P. C. Girouard of the Royal Engineers, in charge of 
railway construction, and assisted latterly by Lieutenants A. E. Hod- 
gins and C. J. Armstrong; Lieutenant C. \V. VV. McLean, who was 
appointed A. D. C. on the staff of Sir H. E. Colville and granted a 
commission in the Royal Artillery ; Captains H. B. Stairs and A. H. 
Macdonell, specially mentioned by Colonel Otter for personal gal- 
lantry ; Lieutenant-Colonel J. L. Biggar and Major J. C. McDougall 
— the one D. A. A. G. for Canada at Cape Town and the other for 
Railway Transport ; Lieutenant A. C. Caldwell, in charge of the 
mapping section of the Intelligence Department ; Lieutenant-Colonel 
W. D. Gordon of Montreal, who acted as D. A. A. G. for Austral- 
asia ; the Rev. P. M. O'Leary of Quebec, the Roman Catholic Chap- 
lain of the Royal Canadians who did much for the sick and wounded — 
often under fire — are some of those who had heavy and responsible 
duties given them or became prominent in various phases of service. 
Lieutenant-Colonel G. Sterling Ryerson. who went to the front as 
Canadian Red Cross Commissioner did some service and received 
appointment as a British Red Cross Commissioner and many subse- 
quent marks of appreciation from those in authority. Lieutenant- 
Colonel Samuel Hughes who, on account of his early insubordination, 
did not receive the regular appointment which would otherwise have 
been his, went out to South Africa upon his own responsibility and 
was given an opportunity to redeem himself by appointment to a 



THE SOUTH AFRICAN WAR— IMPERIALISM IN CANADA 561 

command under Sir Charles Warren. He showed bravery and skill in 
the irregular warfare of the moment, but seriously lost reputation by 
the letters which he sent home and by continued bitter attacks upon 
the Governor-General and General Hutton. 

Such is the story of the share taken by Canada and Canadian 
troops in this eventful struggle. It was an important share and one 
entirely out of proportion to the number of men sent to the front 
from the Dominion. To compare the 3,000 Canadians in South 
Africa with the 15,000 volunteers contributed by Cape Colony, the 
5,000 given by little Natal, or the 8,000 sent from Australasia, 
indicates this fact. But the assertion of a new and great principle of 
Imperial defence ; the revolution effected in methods of war by the 
proved and superior mobility of Colonial forces in the contest ; the 
actual achievements of the men themselves in steadiness, discipline 
and bravery ; reveal ample reasons for considering the participation of 
Canada in this war as one of the great events of its history. The con- 
duct of all the Colonial troops was, indeed, such as to win general 
praise and to thoroughly warrant the statement in the Queen's Speech 
at the opening of the British Parliament on August 8th, 1900, that 
the war " has placed in the strongest light the heroism and high mili- 
tary qualities of the troops brought together under my banner from 
this country, from Canada, Australasia and my South African Pos- 
sessions." 



30 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

A Review of Popular Progress 

IN a country where the traditions of the people have been chiefly 
those of other and older lands ; where the history, until within a 

few generations of time, has been one of internal conflict between 
rival races and foreign flags ; where the modern events of develop- 
ment in a constitutional direction and in material welfare have been 
controlled by the slowly-merging antagonisms of race and religion ; 
the growth of liberty and the matured practice of self-government 
have naturally afforded room for interesting and stirring experiences. 
Add to these considerations vast and almost unknown areas, immense 
difficulties of transportation and trade, the competition of a great 
southern neighbour of not always friendly tendencies, the continued 
arrival throughout half a century of hundreds of thousands of people 
with diverse tastes and politics and various degrees of knowledge or 
ignorance, and the position grows in interest and importance. 

With the nineteenth century commenced the constitutional his- 
tory of Canada. To the British subject and elector of the end of that 
century it is difficult to clearly comprehend the situation in those 
olden days. Newspapers were so few as to be of little influence. 
Books were scarce, valuable, and of a character not calculated to 
throw light upon existing problems. The people of Lower Canada 
were wrapped up in the traditions and surroundings of many years 
before and, under the British flag, were fondly nursing the ideas and 
ideals of Old France in the days of Louis XI\'. ; of New France in 
the days of Montcalm and the earlier period and glories of Frontenac. 

The people of the English Provinces were still little more than 
562 



A REy/EW OF POPULAR PROGRESS 563 

isolated pioneer settlers steeped in the shadowed memories of a past 
struggle for King and institutions and country ; embittered against 
all republican or democratic tendencies ; prejudiced, naturally and 
inevitably, against the Radicals of England who had helped to ruin 
the Royal cause in the Thirteen Colonies and against the French of 
Quebec who had been so long the traditional enemies of England 
and the sincere foes of British supremacy in North America. To 
them, all new-comers, whether the later Loyalists from the States, or 
immigrants of subsequent years from the Old Land, were subjects of 
suspicion as being possibly alien in origin, or indifferent in sentiment 
to their own sacrifices and their own sacred political beliefs. To the 
French-Canadians, all immigrants were equally undesirable as being 
practically certain to possess religious and racial differentiation from 
themselves. 

THE EVOLUTION OF CANADIAN PARTIES 

Into this peculiar mass of varied interests and antagonistic feel- 
ings came the leaven of a constitutional and Parliamentary system. It 
did not develop from within. It was not the result of popular evolu- 
tion or even of popular desire. The French-Canadians accepted it 
as an external part of their new situation, a political appanage to the 
Conquest ; while the Loyalists of the other Provinces did not really 
want it and would probably have been quite satisfied for many years 
to come with able Governors and reasonably efficient local advisers. 
Still, the latter knew how to use it when received and were more or 
less familiar with the underlying principles of a Legislature and free 
government. When, however, increasing population brought varied 
political sentiments and personalities into conflict with the Loyalists, 
the inevitable result followed and a dominant class found itself in 
collision with a dominating people who cared more for the present 
than the past, more for phantasms of liberty than memories of loyalty, 
more for a share in the government of the country than for abstract 



564 A REVIEW OF POPULAR PROGRESS 

justice to the men who had in great measure made the country. In 
Lower Canada, as elsewhere pointed out, the Legislature soon became 
merely a weapon of offence against everything British ; and the exter- 
nal institution foisted upon a people who understood autocracy better 
than the simplest principle of freedom and who had not even practiced 
the most rudimentary elements of municipal self-government was 
adapted to the exigencies of racial feeling with a facility which reflects 
credit upon French-Canadian quickness of perception while fully illus- 
trating the racial prejudices of the people. Out of these conditions 
came the Rebellion of 1837, the troubles of 1849, and the struggles 
of the " Si.xties." 

At the beginning of the century Toryism was dominant ; at the 
end of the century democracy governs. Which was the better? 
The average writer will unhesitatingly say that the rule of the people, 
by the people, is the accredited dictum of his age and the only just 
principle of government. But the admission of the fact that popular 
rule is wise and right in 1900 does not interfere with a perception 
that, under vastly different conditions, other forms and systems in 
1800 may also have been wise and proper for the time being. The 
government by a class in the English Provinces and in days when 
that class represented the loyal and pioneer population of the country, 
and ruled it in accordance with the hereditary sentiments of the major- 
ity was not in itself unjust in practice or despotic in principle. The 
resistance of that class to innovation and democracy was natural and 
probably wise at a time when these things meant American ideas and 
the dangers of American propaganda in a small and weak community.. 
The rule of a few leading families of e.xperience and knowledge in 
days of scattered settlers and isolated homes and general poverty was 
in itself a benefit. In Lower Canada the En^rlish settlers were the 
only class trained in the self-government which had been meted out 
in a measure as large as was thought to be safe and wise and which 




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.•; REVIEW OF POPULAR PROGRESS 567 

was really too large for the occasion. They were the only element, 
outside of a few Seigneurs, who were in any way fitted for adminis- 
tration and justice and the making of impartial laws — as the subse- 
quent adventures of the French Assembly clearly prove. 

Moreover, if this class Government of 1800 was a selfish one in 
some respects it was not any more so than a partisan Government in 
1900 would be. If it chose associates from, and filled appointments 
with, its relatives and friends, the sin was no greater than that of any 
Canadian Government of a hundred years later. If it fought strenu- 
ously and sincerely, in all the Provinces, for British institutions as then 
understood and for the British connection which it regarded as a child 
does its mother, who is there in 1900 that can throw stones at it? 
Faults and flounderings there were in the Toryism of iSoo, but if we 
measure it in accordance with its pioneer surroundings and limited 
resources we must conclude that those results were no more serious in 
bulk or consequences than are the faults and flounderings of the democ- 
racy of 1900. And, between the two, lie a hundred years of struggle 
and evolution, of growing wealth and increased popular intelligence. 

CANADIAN POLITICAL LEADERS 

The leaders of the century, the rulers of the people, have, how- 
ever, greatly changed in character and scope of culture as the coun- 
try has slowly broadened out from Colonies into Provinces, from 
Provinces into a Dominion, from a Dominion into a British nation. 
The early leaders of the Canadas such as William Smith, Jonathan 
Sewell, John Beverley Robinson and Isaac Allen were steeped to the 
lips in memories of the Thirteen Colonies and the Revolution. 
Later Tory leaders such as Bishop Strachan, Sir Allan N. McNab, 
William Henry Draper, Henry Sherwood and William Cayley were 
equally instinct with the traditions of English public life as found in 
the pages of history and the knowledge of Canadian adherents. 
Many of these men were cultured gentlemen in the best English sense 



568 A REVIF.W OF POPULAR PROGRESS 

of the word, as were also Robert Baldwin, Francis Hincks and such 
French-Canadians as Sir L. 11. Lafontaine, Sir A. A. Dorion and Sir 
E. P. Tachc. They strove to imitate Eng'lish manners and customs 
as far as possible and many leaders of French extraction added a 
most useful element of courtesy and grace to the politics and social 
life of the young and struggling community. On the other hand 
many of the French-Canadian leaders of the first half of the century 
were steeped in the traditions of French life, the affiliations of French 
literature and the elements of French thought. Thev followed the 
democracy of republican France — with a dash of republicnn America 
as one of the constituents of theory and policy. Canada as a national 
entity was, of course, not in existence and the culture of the mixed com- 
munity was, therefore, either French or English, with a strong addi- 
tional independent element — as the years advanced toward the begin- 
ning of the second half of the century — of something that was purely 
American in style and type. 

In the year 1900 it is almost a question which of all these ele- 
ments is uppermost in the peculiar condition of affairs embodied in 
the name Canadian. There is a strong and pronounced Canadian 
sentiment amongst the people which has largely overcome and 
destroyed, in their politicians and leaders, the extraneous tendencies 
of opinion known as French, or English, or American. At the same 
time the bulk of the population is British in its loyalty and increas- 
ingly Imperialistic in opinion — -a sentiment grading upwards from the 
passiveness of Quebec to the enthusiasm of Toronto, or \'ictoria, or 
Halifax. The culture of the community has become, nominally, a 
local culture. It chiefly emanates from local Universities and in poli- ' 
tics is made to fit local feelings. But the general tendency has been 
to make this culture American in style and character. Canadian Uni- 
versities are largely affected by American influences, as is the whole 
educational system of the country. The press is American in type 



A REVIEW OF POPULAR PROGRESS 569 

and utterly opposed in principles of management to the English 
model. The politics of the Dominion are run upon lines about half- 
way between the antagonistic systems of Great Britain and the Uni- 
ted States. The speech, manner and style of its public men are 
essentially American and the social character of the community more 
nearly approximates to that type than to any other. 

Canadian leaders of the last half of the century have been very 
different in type from their fellow-leaders at the heart of the Empire. 
Few of them have even had the culture of old-time gentlemen such as 
Robinson or Sewell. None of them have shown the varied accom- 
plishments now so common amongst the statesmen of Great Britain 
where a Salisbury is devoted to science, a Rosebery has written one 
of the most eloquent little books of the century, a Balfour has won 
fame as a philosophic writer and a Gladstone has distinguished him- 
self in almost innumerable fields of attainment. Lack of time and 
the fact of having to make a living when out of ofjfice, together with 
the receipt of small salaries when in ofifice, are the real reasons for 
this condition of affairs. In England it is an every-day matter for 
some leading public man to speak at length, and with evident learn- 
ing, upon questions of literature, art, sociology, philosophy, and the 
progress, or otherwise, of all the varied elements of a complex civili- 
zation. As yet Canada has not approached this level though signs 
have not been wanting toward the end of the century that the 
Dominion is slowly growing upwards in culture as in other matters. 
And, even now, it is greatly superior in the style of its public men to 
the position of Australasian leaders. 

In other respects Canadian leaders differ from those of earlier 
years. With all their wider outlook and the Imperial position which 
the Dominion has latterly attained they still remain somewhat narrow 
in conception while the necessity of conciliating rival races and reli- 
gions has developed an extreme opportunism. The latter quality has 



570 A REVIEW OF POPULAR PROGRESS 

come to them in part from over the American border; in part from 
the peculiar nature of the mixed Canadian democracy ; in part from 
the brilliant example in details and methods, though not really in 
principles, of Sir John A. Macdonald. The British practice of hold- 
ing certain political convictions, in office or out of it, and of willingly 
surrendering power if anything happens to change those convictions, 
has not prevailed in Canada to anything like a general extent since 
the days of responsible government. Sir John Macdonald, it is true, 
had certain defined and prominent principles — British connection, pro- 
tection, opposition to American union of any kind — but outside of 
these he was quite willing to modify his opinions in order to forward 
the Interests of his party. It was not so in the earlier days of Canada; 
it is not so in the later days of England where a Hartington, or 
Bright, or Chamberlain, has sacrificed his party feelings and associa- 
tions and apparent future in order to oppose the new and dangerous 
proposals of a great popular leader such as Gladstone. 

Still, the politics of Canada, with all their admitted elements of 
weakness do not, at the end of the century, merit pessimistic consid- 
eration. Sir John Macdonald may have been an opportunist in minor 
matters, but it is more than probable that Canada would not be a 
national unit and a power in the Empire to-day if he had not combined 
opportunism with the higher methods of statesmanship. Sir John 
Thompson, during his nine years of Dominion public life, gave the 
country a career of sterling honesty and won a reputation for political 
integrity which deserves the appreciation of posterity as it certainly 
conferred credit upon the Dominion of his too-brief day. Sir Leo- 
nard Tilley combined undoubted. personal honour with rare qualities 
of speech and manner and heart. 

Sir Oliver Mowat, during his almost quarter of a century of 
Premiership in the Province of Ontario, displayed qualities of tact 
and conciliation which rose to the level of statesmanship. Sir 



A REVIEW OF POPULAR PROGRESS $Ti 

Adolphe Chapleau, during his long career in the politics of Quebec 
and Canada, developed a character that was curiously compounded of 
political selfishness and indifference to some of the higher principles 
of public life, with an eloquence which was so great as to stamp him 
a born leader of men. Sir Charles Tupper has contributed to Canadian 
history an element of force, a character of determination, and a career 
of consistent political labour which marks him out as a man worthy 
of high place in any country's Valhalla of eminence. The Hon. 
George Eulas Foster has given to the later years of Dominion politics 
an eloquence of speech and debate which it is difficult to find the 
equal of in Canadian history — unless it be the case of Joseph Howe. 
Sir Wilfrid Laurier, the first Liberal Premier of Canada since the 
days of Mackenzie, is an undoubted opportunist in politics, but he is 
also one of the most picturesque figures in the public life of the 
Empire. Handsome, eloquent in French and English, graceful in 
manner and bearing, cultured in language and attainment, he is a man 
of whose personality the country has reason to be proud. Sir Richard 
Cartwright is of a very different type, and one of the very few Cana- 
dian politicians whose oratory approximates to the English style and 
whose references and similies indicate wide knowledge and reading. 

Upon the whole it is apparent that, while Canadian politics are 
on a lower level than those in England, they are upon a much higher 
plane than in the United States or Australia. It is also clear that, 
while political leaders have changed greatly from the type of rulers 
living in the beginning of the century and have not yet developed 
the culture of older lands and wider opportunities, they have managed 
to more than hold their own upon this continent and are now, at 
the end of the century, rapidly developing along lines of politcal 
action which must, more and more, bring them into touch with the 
world-wide interests, politics and rule of the Mother-land. This will 
probably produce a higher form of political life and individual culture 



572 A REVIEW OF POPULAR PROGRESS 

in the future, though its attainment must be preceded by the creation 
of a more truly Canadian press and the establishment of a news system 
which does not leave tlie daily intellectual food of the Canadian peo- 
ple in American hands, or British and Imperial public affairs to be 
dealt with from a naturally alien and unsympathetic point of view. 

DEVELOPMENT OF EDUCATION 

During the century which constitutes the developing period of 
Canadian history, as distinct from its picturesque and military periods, 
education has gone through various stages of growth. In Quebec it 
was at first essentially a religious and ecclesiastical system, controlled 
by priests and nuns and institutions under the leadership of the 
Church. Much of it was of the higher, or collegiate, type and 
intended primarily for the training of religious teachers. The attempts 
at establishing a general school system prior to the Rebellion, in 
1S37, were tentative and feeble, even amongst the small English 
population ; and such schools as were in existence met with disaster 
in the times of trouble immediately preceding and succeeding the 
insurrection. The teachers of the day were needy and illiterate, the 
supervision careless and dishonest, the school-houses dirty and, in 
winter, very cold, the children unprovided with books, and the parents 
singularly indifferent.* After the union with Upper Canada legisla- 
tion of various kinds and degrees of value followed and, between 
1853 and 1S61, the pupils in Lower Canadian educational institutions 
of all kinds increased from ioS,ooo to i So. 000 and the assessments 
and fees for their support rose from $165,000 to $526,000. 

Meanwhile, the Roman Catholic religious bodies of the Province 
had increased greatly in educational strength and efficiency — especi- 
ally the higher institutions of instruction. They possessed at least 
2,000,000 acres of land, some of it in the heart of Montreal and 
other growing centres, which developed wealth by every year's growth 



•Arthur Puller. Rrporl upon Education in the Ptovince of Quebec. iSjS. 



A RE VIE IV OF POPULAR PROGRESS 573 

of the country. Colleges for this kind of teaching were founded 
at Quebec, Montreal, L'Assomption, Joliette, Levis, Nicolet, Rigaud, 
Rimouski, Ste. Anne, St. Hyacinthe, St. Laurent, Rouville, Terre- 
bonne, and other places. In 1854 Laval University was inaugurated 
at Quebec and later on was also established in Montreal. From its 
scholastic halls have come most of the rulers and leaders of French 
Canada since that time. Three years later Normal Schools were 
established for the training of teachers and in 1854 a Council of Public 
Instruction was organized with eleven Catholics and four Protest- 
ants in its membership. Out of this development came a common 
or public school system which slowly improved until, in 1875 — eight 
years after Confederation when education had been placed in the 
hands of the Provincial Governments — legislation initiated by M. de 
Boucherville, along the lines which had been slowly evolved by Dr. 
Jean Baptiste Meilleur and the Hon. P. J. O. Chauveau in two pre- 
ceding decades, established the existing system. 

At the end of the century this system is notable as having 
been created in a Province dominated by one race and religion and 
yet conceived and practiced in almost perfect fairness toward the 
minority. The Superintendent of Public Instruction has usually held 
office for many years in succession and has been fairly independent of 
political parties. The Catholic and Protestant elements of the popu- 
lation have separate Sections of the Council of Public Instruction 
and they administer the funds provided so as to suit the different 
ideas and ideals of their people. The Province boasts of seventeen 
colleges founded and maintained by the Roman Catholic clergy. It 
has McGill University as the centre of its English-speaking education 
during fifty years — much of the time under the administration and man- 
agement of the late Sir William Dawson — and now developed into one 
of the great Universities of the British Empire. The standard of super- 
ior education in the Province is high ; the standard of education in its 



574 --? REVIEW OF POPULAR PROGRESS 

more preliminary forms is improving ; the teaching Orders of women 
who instruct pupils, numbering, in 1896, over 37,000, in domestic econ- 
omy as well as in ordinary accomplishments, are doing most useful 
work ; the number of children attending schools of all kinds has 

increased from 212,000 in 1867 to 307,000 in 1897. 

In the other Provinces there has been no racial division amongst 
the people, but there were, at first, the inevitable difficulties of 
pioneer life, poverty of resource and distances in space. Isolation 
and lack of money produced paucity of schools everywhere and poor- 
ness of teaching wherever they did exist. Dr. John Strachan, Bishop 
and politician and polemist, was practically the pioneer of educa- 
tion in Upper Canada. Out of his school at Cornwell came the 
leading men of the early days and from his conception of sectarian, 
or Church of England education, came greater institutions of learn- 
ing in Toronto — the Upper Canada College, King's College, which 
was afterwards secularized as the University of Toronto, and Trinity 
College, which he then established as an educational centre for his 
cherished Church. 

Contemporary with him in part, and living and working after him, 
was Dr. Egerton Ryerson, the modern organizer of the public school 
system of Ontario, the vigorous and devoted champion of popular 
education and common schools. At first, in Upper Canada and down by 
the Atlantic, as in Quebec, instruction in its simpler forms was greatly 
neglected. Long after the people had passed out of their pioneer posi- 
tion and the excuse of poor roads or no roads, and of poverty, or lack of 
public organization, was removed from valid consideration, they seemed 
to remain indifferent, in all the English Provinces, to the education of 
children and to be much more inclined to lavish money and attention 
upon Colleges and higher branches of learning. The log school- 
house of early days, the painfully inadequate accommodation for 
the pupils, the ignorant and sometimes intemperate teachers, remained 




THE HON. SIR CHARLES TUPPER, BART., G. C. M. G., C. B. 
Sixth Prime Minister uf Canada 



A REVIEW OF POPULAR PROGRESS 577 

public evils, in at least the two latter particulars, well up to the end of 
the first half of the century. Gradually and eventually, a change for the 
better took place. Dr. Ryerson worked wonders in Upper Canada. 
His School Act of 1850, followed by the establishment of Separate 
Catholic Schools in 1862, laid the foundation of the existing system 
which the sweeping legislation of 187 1 altered greatly in detail with- 
out affecting seriously in principle. 

In 1876 the important change was made of placing the Education 
Department in charge of a responsible member of the Provincial 
Government and, between that time and 1883, it was under the control 
of the Hon. Adam Crooks. His successor was the Hon. George VV. 
Ross who held the position until his accession to the Premiership of 
the Province in 1899. Progress from the middle of the century 
onwards had been very marked. Between 1850 and 1871 the teachers 
in the public schools increased by 2,000 in number and the attendance 
of pupils by 100,000. Between the latter date and 1896 the teachers 
increased from 5,306 to 8,988 and the average attendance of pupils 
from 188,000 to 271,000. More important still, perhaps, the standard 
of education grew better and better until the public schools were 
fully established in a position of equality with other departments of 
study and as part of a great educational chain in which the links were 
the elementary or public schools, the high schools, the normal schools 
for teachers, the Colleges and Universities. 

Sectarian higher education had, meanwhile, grown greatly in 
popularity and power in Ontario. Besides the University of Toronto 
which was secular in its control and instruction, though originally 
sectarian, and Trinity College, which was Anglican in support and 
policy; the Presbyterians had started Knox College at Toronto and 
Queen's University at Kingston — the latter a notable institution in 
the concluding quarter of the century under the control of Princi- 
pal George Monro Grant ; the Methodists founded Albert College at 



578 A REVIEW OF POPULAR PROGRESS 

Belleville, which, in time, joined with Victoria College of Cobourg, 
as a federated institution and later on became Victoria University of 
Toronto ; the Baptists established McMaster University in Toronto; 
and the Roman Catholics founded, in succession, Regiopolis College 
at Kingston and the University of Ottawa at Ottawa. 

In the Maritime Provinces early conditions were very similar to 
those of Upper Canada or Ontario. There was the same poverty in 
school arrangements and paucity in teaching talent or training. There 
was the same indifference shown amongst the masses of the people 
toward elementary education and the same tendency among the rulers 
and upper classes to promote higher education and collegiate institu- 
tions. Kind's Colleofe at Windsor, Nova Scotia, was organized as far 
back as 178S; the University of New Brunswick was founded at 
Fredericton in the first year of the century; Dalhousie University 
was established at Halifax under the auspices of the Earl of Dal- 
housie in 182 1 ; Acadia College, Wolfville, was formed in 1838, as 
the educational centre of the Baptists and as a protest against the 
Church of Ensrland associations of all the other Collesfes. Mount 
Allison College, Sackville, N. B., was founded by the Methodists in 
1843 'ind the Presbyterian College at Halifa.x in 1S20. In Nova 
Scotia, the Rev. Dr. Thomas McCulloch and in New Brunswick, the 
Rev. Dr. Edwin Jacob did continuous and splendid service to this 
cause of higher education. The elementary system developed more 
slowly. Nova Scotia possessed only 217 schools and 5.514 pupils in 
1824, spent upon them less than $50,000 and voted down more than 
one measure for taxing the people in their support. In 1S50, how-, 
ever, Mr. (afterwards Sir) J. W. Dawson was appointed the first 
Superintendent of Education in the Province. Progress then became 
more rapid and improved methods of teaching and plans of building 
were developed. He was succeeded in 1855 by the Rev. Dr. Alex- 
ander Forrester and, in 1864, the Hon. Dr. Tupper introduced in the 



A REVIEW OF POPULAR PROGRESS 579 

Legislature of Nova Scotia his famous measure establishing^ free 
schools and a general public assessment for their maintenance. He 
fought the Bill through successfully but the unpopularity of the direct 
taxation involved defeated him at the ensuing elections. 

The system, however, was established and, under the succeeding 
management of the Rev. A. S. Hunt, Dr. Theodore H. Rand, Dr. David 
Allison and Dr. Alexander H. MacKay, became eminently successful. 
The number of teachers rose from 916 in 1865 to 2,438 in 1896, the 
average daily attendance of pupils from 23,572 to 53,023, the popular 
assessment for expenses from $124,000 to $450,000, the Provincial 
grant from $87,000 to $242,000. The Council of Public Instruction is 
composed of five members of the Government and the Superintendent 
of Education is a non-political administrator of the Department under 
their general control. Separate schools have never been organized in 
Nova Scotia under Provincial auspices, although the Catholics have an 
efficient system of higher education including St. Francois Xavier 
College at Antigonish and the College of Ste. Anne at Church Point. 

In New Brunswick, for many years after the beginning of the 
century, teachers' salaries remained so small and the position was so 
undignified — as a result of the universal custom in pioneer Canada 
of "boarding around" at the houses of the school patrons so as to 
eke out meagre remuneration — that eood men would have nothinsf to 
do with the profession. As late as 1845 teachers' wages averaged $125 
a year in this Province and much of that miserable sum was not paid in 
cash. In this year, however, matters seem to have come to a head, a 
Committee of the Legislature was appointed to investigate the con- 
dition of education in the Province and two years later an effort was 
made to establish an organized system. In 1852 a Superintendent was 
appointed and in 1858 further legislation took place. But it appeared 
impossible to change the apathy and indifference of the people. 
Though they were fighting bitter sectarian contests over Universities 



58o A REVIEW OF POPULAR PROGRESS 

and Test Acts and higher education they refused to take any interest 
in, or tax themselves for, the elementary teaching of their children. 

In 1 87 1, therefore, it was decided to establish free schools and 
compulsory attendance and to, at the same time, abolish all religious 
teaching. This latter action was a distinct blow to the Catholic 
Separate Schools which had practically developed and was, of course, 
strongly resented by the people of that Church. The measure passed, 
however, and stands as greatly to the credit of the Hon. George E. 
King, then Premier of the Province and afterwards Justice of the 
Supreme Court at Ottawa, as does the preceding establishment of free 
schools in Nova Scotia to the credit of Sir Charles Tupper. The 
system is much the same as in the latter Province and has been pre- 
sided over since 187 1 by Dr. Theodore H. Rand, William Crocket 
and Dr. James R. Inch. From 1872 to 1897 the number of schools 
increased from 884 to 1737, the teachers from 918 to 1829, and the 
pupils from 39,000 to 61,000. 

In little Prince Edward Island conditions were not different in 
early times from those in the larger Provinces and it was not until 
1825 that its first Education Act was passed. The year 1852 saw 
the establishment of a free school system and, in i860, the Prince of 
Wales' College was opened at Charlottetown. There were 121 
schools in 1841 and 531 in 1891 ; 4,356 pupils in the former year and 
22,138 in the latter. To sum up the situation in these Provinces it 
maybe said that everywhere prior to Confederation similar conditions 
existed and everywhere the same beneficial results have since followed 
the establishment of free schools, the formation of Normal Schools 
for the training of teachers, the taxation of the people for educational 
matters, their enforced interest in school affairs and the elevation and 
increased dignity given to the teaching profession. 

Development along these lines in the North-West and British 
Columbia was naturally an affair of comparatively recent times. 



A REV/rnV OF POPULAR PROGRESS 581 

Such education as there was in earlier days came through the devoted 
activities of pioneer missionaries such as the ministers of the Red 
River Settlement, Fathers Tache and Provencher, the Rev. John 
West, the Rev. Dr. John Black, and many others who spread them- 
selves in a thin line of labour and self-sacrifice over a vast extent of 
territory stretching to the Pacific Ocean. In Manitoba the system 
since 1890 has been a free school and undenominational one. There 
were sixteen Protestant schools in 1877 and seventeen Catholic schools 
and, in 1890, these had increased to 628 and 91 respectively. Since 
the new system was inaugurated considerable progress has been 
made and, in 1897, there were 1018 public schools with an expendi- 
ture of $810,000. The system in the Territories includes a Council of 
Public Instruction of a somewhat mixed character and of very recent 
formation. There are four members of the Government upon the 
Council and four appointed members from outside — two Protestants 
and two Catholics. Progress has been excellent, especially in view of 
the immense areas under Territorial jurisdiction, and the schools in 
operation have increased, between 1886 and 1896, from 76 to 366; 
the enrolled pupils from 2,553 to 12,796; the teachers from 84 to 433 
and Legislative expenditure from $8,900 to $126,000. 

British Columbia had practically no educational system prior to 
1872. Up to that time both the earlier efforts of the Hudson's Bay 
Company on Vancouver Island and the later ones of the Legislature 
had been unsuccessful. The Public School Act of the year men- 
tioned, however, established a defined system which was improved by 
legislation in 1879, 1891, and 1896. There is a Minister of Educa- 
tion as well as a Superintendent of Education, but the general 
character of the arrangements are not materially different from those 
in other Provinces. In 1872 there were 25 school districts which had 
increased to 193 in 1896 ; an average daily attendance of 575 as 
against one of 9,254 ; an expenditure of $36,000 as against $204,000. 

31 



S82 A REVIEW OF POPULAR PROGRESS 

There are a larsfe number of Indian schools in the Province under 
denominational control and, though it is without a University, 
the Roman Catholics have two Colleges for boys and various 
Academics, while the Methodists have a College at New Westmin- 
ster. The only University from Lake Superior to the shores of the 
Pacific is the University of Manitoba at Winnipeg. It originated, 
practically, from the Anglican Red River Academy of pioneer days 
and was organized in 1877 with University powers and as a federated 
institution which included St. John's College, (the old-time Academy) 
Manitoba College under Presbyterian auspices, the College of St. 
Boniface under Catholic control, and Wesley College under Methodist 
guidance. Archbishop Machray, the Anglican Primate of Canada, 
has been its Chancellor for many years and has had much to do with 
its history and success. 

During all these educational developments in the Provinces the 
factor of sectarian strife has had a more or less pronounced effect. 
In Quebec it took the early form of antagonism between the hier- 
archy and the founders of McGill University, but finally mellowed 
down into a condition in which Laval has become the centre 
of Catholic higher education and McGill of Protestant attendance. 
Little conflict has existed in modern times between the elementary 
school sections and they have worked quietly along their own dis- 
tinct and marked lines. In Ontario the earlier struggles were between 
the dominant and dominatincf Church of England which desired 
— as in the Mother-land — to control the Universities. This desire 
led to the long political conflict over the constitution and functions of 
King's College, or, as it afterwards became, the University of Toronto. 
It also caused the formation of various denominational Colleges and 
Universities. A later struggle, in the years preceding Confederation, 
was fought over the Catholic desire for Separate Schools — a wish 
which was realized in the legislation of 1S62 and chrystalized in the 



A REVIEW OF POPULAR PROGRESS 583 

pact of Confederation and the subsequent amendments of tlie 
Mowat Government. In the Maritime Provinces the strucrofle for 
supremacy in educational matters by the Church of England resulted 
in a division of forces and opinion which led to the foundation of 
Dalhousie University in antagonism to King's College and the creation 
of Acadia College in opposition to both. The Mount Sackville 
institution was, in the same way a New Brunswick protest against the 
original Anglicanism of its University at Fredericton. The conflicts 
were bitter and eventually went against the Church of England 
principle, but, instead of resulting in a unified system of secular 
higher education in each of the Provinces, as should logically have 
been the case, it has simply caused the multiplication of denomina- 
tional colleges at the expense of the now secularized older institutions 
and at the expense, in many cases, of general efificiency and success. 

RELIGIOU.S HISTORY AND PROGRESS 

'The religious progress of Canada since pioneer days is a subject 
of fascinating interest. It has worked in different ways into the very 
warp and woof of Canadian history and finds a place, through denomi- 
national rivalry, in almost every Canadian branch of popular develop- 
ment. In Quebec, the Roman Catholic Church has guided and modified 
and controlled the institutions of the Province, the habits and customs 
of the French race, the morals and politics and loyalty of the people. 
It helped Lord Dorchester to save the country to the Crown in 1776 ; 
it supported Great Britain with strenuous efforts in 181 2 ; it modified 
and checked the revolutionary movement of 1837 ; it stood by the 
proposals for Confederation in 1867; it largely backed up the Con- 
servative party in its principles of expansion and protection and rail- 
way development up to 1891 ; it opposed the movement in favour of 
Commercial Union with the United States. It had a place in the 
Jesuits Estates question, a pronounced share in the Riel issue, an 
important part in the New Brunswick School question and a still more 
vital share in the Manitoba School matter. 



S84 A REVIEW OF POPULAR PROGRESS 

The Church of England in all the English Provinces was a domi- 
nant power in earlier days, an influence for loyalty to the Crown, for 
education in the love of British institutions, for adherence to rule by a 
governing Loyalist class, for devotion to the policy of British Gover- 
nors. It held a high place in the Government of all the Provinces — not 
excepting Catholic Quebec — prior to the Rebellion ; it had a strong 
interest in the stormy question of the Clergy Reserves ; it held a 
vigorous position in matters of education; it did much, in co-operation 
with the Roman Catholic Church, to pioneer Western religious activ- 
ities; it was for half a century the Church of the classes, the support of 
old-time Toryism, the strength of a social system which was not with- 
out great benefit to a new community and crude conditions of life. 

The Methodist denomination had a pronounced place in the 
hearts of later settlers from the United States and the United King- 
dom. It was the early root and home of Canadian radicalism, the 
centre of opposition to Toryism, the embodiment of steady and severe 
missionary labours, the cause of bitter political controversy in educa- 
tional matters and in such political issues as the Clergy Reserves. It 
held intimate associations with American Methodism and, up to i8i 2, a 
great part of its ministers were American while its polity and princi- 
ples and preaching were also American in style and, too often, in 
advocacy and patriotism. After the war, when many of its pulpits 
were vacated by American citizens returning to their own country, 
the English element became predominant and, in 1S28, the Canadian 
Methodist Conference was finally declared independent of the Ameri- 
can Church. It had many ups and downs after this time and was 
divided upon political issues in later years by Dr. Egerton Ryerson, 
but always, and everywhere in the Provinces, it continued to exercise 
a strong influence in public affairs. 

Presbyterianism was never such a political factor as were the 
three divisions of Christianity just referred to. Its polity was too 



o 

G 

m 
m 
m 
n 




A REVIEW OF POPULAR PROGRESS 587 

severe in tone and practice and its ministers too conservative, in a 
non partisan sense, to constitute what might be termed a semi-political 
denomination. Methodism was essentially a militant and missionary de- 
nomination in Canadian history ; Presbyterianism was more of a strong, 
pervading influence among men of a single nationality. Its divisions 
were not so numerous as in the other case and, prior to the Disruption 
in Scotland, the " Kirk " often stood side by side with the Church of 
England as a silent factor for the preservation of old traditions and in 
simple antagonism to democratic innovation. The chief political issue 
with which it was mixed up was that of the Clergy Reserves, just as 
the one public question in which the strong Baptist denomination of 
the Maritime Provinces was concerned was that of secular education. 

In all these religious divisions the controversies of the Old Land 
were reproduced with more or less fidelity. The Church of England 
disputed in the latter half of the century over forms and ceremonies 
of High or Low Church practice just as they did in England. 
Methodism was divided into the Primitive Methodist Church, the 
Bible Christian Church and the Wesleyan Methodist Church, while 
its American afifiliations and Canadian position brought into existence 
the New Methodist-Episcopal Church and the Methodist New Con- 
nexion. Presbyterianism had its Church of Scotland in Canada, its 
Free Church Synod, its Presbyterian Church of the Lower Provinces, 
its United Presbyterian Church, its Canada Presbyterian Church. 

If, however, the denominations shared in the shaded differences 
of thought and creed which came to them from the Old Land, they 
also shared, immensely and beneficially, in the financial benefactions 
of the British Churches and of the great missionary Societies ; while 
the Church of England received largre sums from the British Parlia- 
ment well on into the nineteenth century. Up to 1833, when a gradual 
reduction was begun, the Imperial Parliament granted ;^i6,ooo a year 
for the maintenance of this Church in British America and many 



5S8 A REVIEW OF POPULAR PROGRESS 

Other sums were paid from time to time. Tiie Society for I'romoting 
Christian Knowledge was indefatigable in its missionary work and 
spent large sums in extending the Episcopate, endowing missionary 
clergy, and aiding struggling parishes in the different Provinces. The 
Society for Propagating the Gospel was more than a benefactor, it 
was almost the parent of the Church of England in Canada. Its 
expenditure between 1703 and 1892 in British America was $8,930,- 
925 and from 1820 to 1865 its annual expenditure seldom went below 
$100,000. The Church Missionary Society was another staunch sup- 
porter of Anglicanism in Canada. The various Methodist Churches 
were also largely aided by funds from London and their early English 
missionaries were almost entirely supported from that source. So 
with the Presbyterian denominations and the well-known Glasgow 
Colonial Society and its practical work between 1825 and 1840. 

The progress ?Lnd personnel of these Churches have a most inter- 
esting record — the former because of the light it throws upon general 
religious conditions, the latter because of the influence it had upon 
public development and affairs. The Roman Catholic Church holds 
the chief place in numbers as well as in length of historic association 
with Canadian soil. As the French population of Quebec has 
increased, so have its adherents, and with this increase has come a 
similar expansion and expression of missionary zeal in the far West 
and in all the Provinces. The Catholic population of Quebec in 1783 
has been placed at 113,000 by the Church itself. In 1S30 it was at 
least half a million, with about 50,000 in Upper Canada. In 1851 ■ 
the Church had 746,854 adherents in Lower Canada ; in 1871, just 
after Confederation, it had 1,019,850; and in 1S91 1,291,709. In 
Ontario, its adherents numbered in the years mentioned 167,695, 274,- 
166 and 358,300 respectively. In the three Maritime Provinces of 
Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island it had, at 



A REVIEW OF POPULAR PROGRESS 589 

nearly the same periods* 181,561, 238,459 and 286,250 adherents. 
The Western figures are of recent date and show that in Manitoba, 
the Territories and British Columbia the total Catholic population in 
1S81 was 26,000 in round numbers, and, in i8gi, 53,000. This gives a 
round total, for what is now the Dominion, of 1,080,000 Roman Catho- 
lics in 1S51, 1,530,000 in 1871, and 2,000,000 in 1891 — an increase of 
half a million in every two decades. 

The leaders of the Church during this period have had much to 
do with its success. In Quebec the militant Laval and loyal Plessis 
were succeeded by a series of eminent men of whom Archbishops 
Turgeon and Baillargeon of Quebec, Cardinal Taschereau, the first 
Canadian Prince of his Church, and Archbishops Bourget and Fabre 
of Montreal, were perhaps the chief. Bishop Guigues of Ottawa, 
Mgr. Provencher and Archbishop Tache of Manitoba, Archbishops 
Lynch and Walsh of Toronto, Archbishop Cleary of Kingston, Arch- 
bishops Connolly and O'Brien of Halifax, Mgr. McKinnon of Anti- 
gonish, and Bishop Demers of Vancouver Island, were the most repre- 
sentative successors of Macdonell and Burke and others of pioneer 
days. An important incident of ecclesiastical history in Canada in 
this connection has been the influence exercised by the Pope, at times, 
over its affairs. In 1877 Mgr. George Conroy was sent out to the 
Dominion as an Apostolic Ablegate to arrange the long-standing dis- 
putes between Laval University, in Quebec, and its branch in Mont- 
real. In 1888, Mgr. Smueldres was despatched, largely in connection 
with the same troubles and partly to soothe certain Diocesan difficul- 
ties. Mgr. Raffaele Merry del Val was sent in 1897 to report upon 
the Manitoba School question and to prevent further agitation 
amongst the hierarchy if it should seem desirable. In 1899, Mgr. 
Diomede Falconio was appointed in a more permanent capacity to 
act, apparently, as the Pope's adviser upon Canadian affairs. 

» The earliest figures obtainable in New Brunswick are for i36i and in Prince Edward Island, for 1848 This state- 
ment also applies to the statistics given at the end of this chapter. 



590 A REVIEW OF POPULAR PROGRESS 

Meanwhile, the great Protestant denominations had been expand- 
ing in various directions under the most strenuous exertions by their 
leaders. The Church of England was led in Quebec by such heroes 
of the missionary field as Bishop Jacob Mountain, Bishop George J. 
Mountain and Bishop Charles James Stewart and by such religious 
organizers as Dr. Williams and Dr. Fulford — the latter the first 
Metropolitan of Canada. In Ontario, the Rev. Dr. John Stuart and the 
strenuous personality of Bishop Strachan, were prominent. In the 
-Maritime Provinces, Dr. Charles Inglis, the first Colonial Bishop 
and whose See for a time included all British America, Dr. John 
Inglis, also Bishop of Nova Scotia, Dr. Hibbert Binney, Bishop of 
the same Province, and Dr. John Medley, Bishop of Fredericton 
during forty-seven years, worked steadily in the foundation and devel- 
opment of the Church. So with Bishop Anderson and Archbishop 
Machray at Fort Garry and Winnipeg, Bishop Horden in the far- 
away Territories, Bishop Sillitoe in British Columbia and Bishop 
Bompas in the distant Yukon. 

Methodism in Canada boasts pioneer labourers such as William 
Case, James Richardson, Henry Ryan, John Reynolds, John Davison, 
Egerton Ryerson, John Carroll, Anson Green, William Black — men 
of immense energy, deep spiritual enthusiam and the highest powers 
of endurance. In later and quieter days the Church — which became one 
great united body from ocean to ocean in 1SS3 — boasted scholars 
and orators such as Dr. Mathew Richey, Dr. Enoch Wood, Dr. Wil- 
liam Morley Punshon, Dr. George Douglas, Dr. S. D. Rice, Dr. J. A. 
Williams, Dr. Albert Carman, Dr. W\ H. Withrow. Presbyterianism in 
its personnel has hardly had the same pioneer variety of attainment, 
except in the cases of Dr. James McGregor in Nova Scotia, Dr. John 
Cook in Quebec and Dr. John Black in the far West. In later days men 
of gfreat ability or learninof such as Dr. Alexander Mathieson. Dr. 
Robert Burns, Dr. Alexander Topp, Dr. John Jenkins, Dr. William 



A REVIEW OF POPULAR PROGRESS S9i 

Reid, Dr. William Gregg, Dr. J. M. King, Dr. William Caven and Dr. 
Alexander MacKnight appeared on the scene. The actual and statis- 
tical progress of these three great Churches since missionary days can 
be seen at a glance from the followinpf three tables : 

I. THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND 

1851 1871 1891 

Ontario 223,190 .... 330,995 .... 385,999 

Quebec 44,682 .... 62,449 .... 7S>472 

Maritime Provinces .85,421 .... 107,844 . . . .114,151 



353-293 501,288 575.622 

The Western Provinces increased from 25,000 Anglican adher- 
ents in 1881 to 68, 000 in 1891. 

II. THE METHODIST DENOMINATION 
1851 

Ontario 213,365 . . 

Quebec 21,199 • ■ 

Maritime Provinces . 54,164 . . 



I87I 


I89I 


. 462,264 


. ■ ■ 654,033 


. 34,100 


. . . 39,544 


■ 81,797 


. . . 103,295 



288,728 578,161 796,872 

The Western figures were 13,000 in 1881 and 51,000 in 1891. 

III. PRESBYTERIANISM 

1851 1871 1891 

Ontario 204,148 . . . .356,442 . • . .453,147 

Quebec 33.470 .... 46,165 .... 52,673 

Maritime Pro\ances . 129,158 .... 171,970 . . • . 182,483 



366,776 574,577 688,303 

The increase in the West was from 19,000 in 1881 to 67,000 in 
1891. From these and preceding figures it is seen that, in round 
numbers, the Roman Catholic faith increased its adherents in all the 
Canadian Provinces between 1851 and 1891, by 1,000,000 souls, the 
Church of England by 290,000, the Methodist denomination by 460,- 
000, and the Presbyterian Church by 388,000. It will be seen, 



592 A REVIEW OF POPULAR PROGRESS 

incidentally, that the Church of greatest prominence and influence in 
early English-speaking Canada, has made the least comparative 
progress of all the chief divisions of Christianity in the country dur- 
ing the last half of the nineteenth century; and it will also be easily 
perceived how large a place the progress of Roman Catholicism gives 
that faith in the population of the Dominion. 

LITERARY AND JOURNALISTIC PROGRESS 

Literature has not wielded a very great influence in the history 
of Canada. The earlier settlers had to pay almost undivided atten- 
tion to their activities in field and forest, on lake and river. The axe 
of the settler, the rafts of the lumberman, the canoe of the voyageiir, 
the musket of the hunter, embodied the practical and necessary aims 
of the people. Later on they developed keen political proclivities 
and the press and the pamphlet took the place of books and what is 
generally regarded as literature. There were a few prominent names, 
and a few works which have lived, and they are chiefly found amongst • 
the French-Canadians. They had cultivated poetry and music and song 
and the lighter graces of life long before such developments had 
penetrated the forests of Ontario or the Atlantic wilderness. Char- 
levoix, Bibaud, Ferland, Faillon, De Gaspe, Gerin-Lajoie, must be 
mentioned. Robert Christie and Henry H. Miles in Quebec, John 
Mercier McMullen in Ontario, Murdoch, Campbell, Gesner and Archer 
in the Maritime Provinces, were historians who did good work in the 
English language. Then came the period brightened by the pen of 
Thomas Chandler Haliburton, the inimitable " Sam Slick," the 
founder of a distinct school of humour, the best known of Canadian • 
writers up to very recent times. 

Canadian literature became voluminous after the middle period 
marked by the pens of Henry J. Morgan, \V. J. Rattray, Alpheus Todd, 
Edmund Collins, John Charles Dent, George Stewart, Heavysege, 
Sangster and McLachlan. Dr. William Kingsford as an historian, 



A REVIEW OF POPULAR PROGRESS 593 

Sir John George Bourinot as a constitutional authority and historian, 
Charles G. D. Roberts as a poet and novelist, Archibald Lampman 
and W. Wilfrid Campbell as poets of high quality, William Kirby as 
author of Le Chien U Or, Sara Jeanette Duncan, Lily Dougall, Robert 
Barr, William McLennan, S. Francis Harrison, as novelists, Louis 
Frechette as the chief of French-Canadian poets, Gilbert Parker as 
one of the world's novel writers, Benjamin Suite, Lieutenant-Colonel 
George T. Denison, Dr. George R. Parkin, all hold marked places in 
the literary life of Canada. There are very many more who might 
and should be mentioned in poetry, science, biography and history, and 
all the varied branches of literature, but enough have been given to 
indicate that Canada in this, as in other respects, has grown out of the 
Colo-nial stage and taken its place in the stream of the world's contri- 
bution to published thought and fancy, expression and fact. 

In journalism Canada has hardly held its place in comparison 
with other branches of development. It always has excelled in vigour 
and force of expression, but has failed in culture and breadth of view. 
Some of its historic names are those of Joseph Howe, George Brown, 
Egerton Ryerson, Francis Hincks, William Annand, William Elder, 
John Livingston, Etienne Parent, J. B. E. Dorion, Mederic Lanctot, 
Joseph Doutre, J. E. Cauchon, Ronald Macdonald, Raphael Belle- 
mare, Thomas White, John Cameron, John Reade, George Murray, 
E. Goff Penny, Peter Mitchell, John Dougall, David Kinnear, D'Arcy 
McGee, William Lyon Mackenzie, James Lesslie, William McDougall, 
Hugh Scobie, George Sheppard, Daniel Morrison, Samuel Thompson, 
J. Gordon Brown, T. C. Patteson, William Fisher Luxton, Nicholas 
Flood Davin, D. W. Higgins and John Robson. From the Atlantic 
to the Pacific these names range up through the stormy politics of a 
century. Many of the men mentioned became also eminent in other 
spheres and all possessed distinct ability. 



594 A REVIEW OF POPULAR PROGRESS 

But distance from the high standards of British journalistic life ; 
proximity to the sensationalism of the United States press ; develop- 
ments arising from localism of character and narrowness of view ; 
lack of capital and a large constituency ; tended to greatly weaken 
the influence and standing of Canadian newspapers and to hamper 
the true and best progress of the press. Toward the end of the cen- 
tury these causes have largely passed away and, though much room 
still exists for improvement, the greater newspapers of Canada are 
creditable to the ability and knowledge of those in charge. When 
they have been made thoroughly Canadian in fact and character by 
the creation of a Canadian news service in Europe and a declaration 
of independence from American news agencies there, another mile- 
stone on the path of progress will have been passed. 



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CHAPTER XXIX 
The Growth of National Prosperity 

THE Provinces of French and British Canada up to the Conquest 
were largely fur-trading communities. Their exports were the 
products of the chase or of the skillful labours of hunters and 
trappers in the wilds of the West. Under the French regime, and 
especially from 1660 to 1760, the country now called Quebec, and 
stretching far down into the heart of the Mississippi valley, was in 
the hands of a practically close corporation which controlled the trade 
and taxes and distribution of all products. Special monopolies in the 
fur-trade, or in the farming of the revenues, were given from time to 
time by the French King. Such conditions had a naturally restrictive 
and injurious effect upon individual enterprise and the progress of com- 
mercial interchange was, therefore, seriously retarded. Parkman tells 
us that in 1674, for instance, merchants not residents in the Colony 
" were forbidden to sell any goods at retail except in August, Sep- 
tember and October ; to trade anywhere in Canada above Quebec ; 
and to sell clothing or domestic articles ready-made. No person, 
resident or not, could trade with the English Colonies and foreign 
commerce of any kind was stiffly prohibited." In 1719, the authori- 
ties were empowered to search houses for foreign goods and to burn 
them publicly, while ships engaged in foreign trade were to be treated 
as pirates. 

When Great Britain took possession of the country in 1 763 its 
trade was, consequently, chiefly confined to furs and the products of 
the forest. Agriculture had made little progress and manufac- 
tures were non-existent — except those of the hand-loom and of home 

597 



598 THE GROWTH OF NATIONAL PROSPERITY 

composition. With the accession of British rule came the British fiscal 
system. Canadians could now trade freely with the Thirteen Colonies 
although there was little real demand for commercial exchange. In 
addition to this, all British possessions were governed by the same 
Navigation Laws and regulations against trading with foreign coun- 
tries, or in foreign vessels, which were beginning to prove so irrita- 
ting to the men of the Atlantic sea-board. Very soon, therefore, 
almost the entire Canadian trade had passed from the hands of F"rance 
to the hands of England. By i8oS the figures for Upper and Lower 
Canada were /^ 1,776,000 sterling, of which the greater part repre- 
sented British business. Furs, wheat, flour, timber and fish were the 
chief exports, and of the imports ^200,000 were manufactured goods 
and ^100,000 were tea, tobacco and provisions. In this year there 
were 333 vessels engaged in the external trade of the Provinces 
while, in 1S30, 967 vessels arrived at the port of Quebec alone. 

During these years and up to 1846, the Mother-land gave ever)' 
possible encouragement to Colonial trade. If she restricted its expan- 
sion in foreign channels she made up for the action, and more than 
made up for it, by tariffs which gave immense preferences to Cana- 
dian products over those of other countries — lumber over that of the 
Baltic, and wheat over that of the L^nited States, for instance. In 
1845 '^'ic Imperial tariff showed a preference given to wheat of i8j. 
charoed foreign countries as agfainst 7s. to ss. charged the Colonies : 
to horses and oxen of 2\s. as aoainst \os.\ to cheese of \\s. as ajrainst 
2s. yd. These instances might be indefinitely extended. In the fol- 
lowing year, however, the Corn Laws and the Colonial preferences 
were alike abolished and, after a preliminary crash and prolonged 
depression, the fiscal system of a Provincial revenue tariff, with 
touches of incidental protection, was established ; Colonial trade was 
made open to the world and Colonial tariffs given, by a sort of gradu- 
ally broadening process, into the control of Colonial Governments. 



THE GROWTH OF NATIONAL PROSPERITY 599 

Up to 1878, the tariffs of the Provinces and then of the Dominion 
remained largely of a revenue nature — with the exception of Mr. 
Gait's policy in 1858-1859 in the Canadas. Since 1878 the tariff of 
Canada has been a protective one, pure and simple, with, however, 
a preference granted to British goods from and after 1898. 

INTER-PROVINCIAL TRADE 

In all this period, and up to the beginning of the fourth quarter in 
the nineteenth century, there was little real trade between the Provinces 
of British America. The North-West and the Pacific Coast were 
hopelessly barred by distance, by the influence of a great corporation, 
and by geographical obstacles, from the Lake and Atlantic Provinces. 
Lower Canada and the Maritime Provinces naturally followed the 
lines of least resistance and of tariff encouragement and traded with 
England. Upper Canada exchanged its goods and products in a 
very considerable frontier trade. When the Reciprocity Treaty came, 
trade developed steadily with the United States in preference to 
England and even against the other Provinces. Tariffs were imposed 
by the Provinces, from the time of the abolition of the Corn Laws 
until Confederation, against each other. It was natural, therefore, 
that during the Reciprocity period when people were growing rich on 
American trade and war necessities and found their foreign commerce 
jumping up by leaps and bounds, that trade between Canada and 
the Maritime Provinces should be small and show little change — in 
1855 it was $1,889,428 and in 1866 $2,429,038. 

Confederation consequently started with a tiny traffic amongst the 
Provinces and with the very large trade, comparatively, of $75,000,000 
between the Provinces and the American Republic. After that time, 
what might be called the home trade grew, but very slowly, for a 
decade. Reciprocity was, of course, a fact as between the various 
divisions of the Dominion and in vivid contrast to the previous condi- 
tion of reciprocity with a foreign country and Inter-Provincial tariffs. 



6oo THE GROWTH OF NATIONAL PROSPERITY 

But the new Dominion tariff was not made so as to encourage trade 
amongst the neighbouring Provinces and it still tended southward to 
the magnet of a large population and the attraction of great indus- 
tries which steadily expanded as the time of war and strife receded 
into the distance. 

A Select Committee of the House of Commons was appointed 
in 1877 to inquire into the situation, but the anti-protectionist party 
was still in power and the Report could only express academic wishes 
for cheaper transportation and increased trade. Then came the 
establishment of the National Policy of protection and the building 
of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Another Committee of the House 
was appointed in 1883 and, after exhaustive inquiry, they reported 
that the purchases of the Maritime Provinces had increased from 
$1,200,000 in 1866 to $22,000,000 in 1882. The trade in fish from 
Nova Scotia westward had " developed to very large proportions 
and, as far west as Montreal, a very considerable trade is already done 
in fish and oils and in West India goods and coal." 

Exact information, either then or now, is, however, ditificult to 
obtain upon this point. There are no tariffs to draw upon for facts 
and figures have to be largely estimates. But we know that from this 
time onward the business between the Provinces, both east and west, 
greatly and steadily increased. Canadian manufactured goods held 
their own home market from Halifax to\^ancouver and, as the country- 
grew in population, wealth and transportation facilities, the value of this 
market naturally developed. Iron and steel manufactures from Nova 
Scotia came up to the inland Provinces. Cotton and other goods of 
New Brunswick reached the markets of Ontario. Farm implements 
and various products of industrial activity from Ontario poured into 
the North-West. Boots and shoes from Quebec supplied part of the 
Ontario market. The fish of the Atlantic and Pacific came west and 
east in expanding quantities. Nova Scotia coal supplied Quebec 



THE GROWTH OF NATIONAL PROSPERITY 6oi 

more and more largely and Ontario in a small measure. Indications 
of this increasinsr Inter-Provincial traffic are found in the coastinsf 
trade, which grew 10,000,000 tons in volume between 1887 and 1896; 
in the freight carried by railways, which increased 8,000,000 tons 
during the same period ; in the shipments of food products sent 
from Montreal to the Maritime Province ports, which have expanded 
very largely in recent years ; in the freight carried by the Inter-Colon- 
ial Railway, which grew from 421,000 tons in 187710 1,379,000 in 1896 
and is chiefly Inter-Provincial traffic. While, therefore, estimates only 
are possible in bulk, the evidences of a large increase in this internal 
trade are sufficiently clear to warrant Mr. George Johnson, the 
Dominion Statistician, in making elaborate calculations and deductions 
from which, in 1899, ^e placed the total trade interchange amongst the 
Provinces at $80,000,000. Following out his method of calculation the 
figures in the last year of the century would be at least $125,000,000. 

DEVELOPMENT IN COMMERCE AND PRODUCTION 

Meanwhile, external trade also developed largely. The impetus 
given to commerce with the United States, and to the use of American 
transportation facilities, by the abolition of the British preference and 
the operation of the Reciprocity Treaty, was checked by the abroga- 
tion of the latter measure, affected in some limited degree by Con- 
federation, and finally nullified by the adoption of a Canadian pro- 
tectionist tariff. The contiguity which had, at first, helped to make 
people consider the United States a natural market for their products 
taught the farmer, after a while, that it was, in the nature of things, 
simply a medium of transportation for the most of his articles to 
Great Britain ; and taught the manufacturer that he had little chance 
of competing in the protected American market upon equal terms 
and that it would, therefore, be better for him to try and hold the 
consumers at his own doors and then to follow the British example 
and Pfo abroad for trade. 

32 



6oi THE GROWTH OF NATIONAL PROSPERITY 

Canadians found, in fact, that Americans were their rivals in mill- 
ing, competitors in production, opponents in railway and waterway 
transportation, antagonists in manufacturing, in jobbing, in importing 
and distributing, rivals in the British market. Hence the gradual 
change shown in the trade returns. In 1853 the imports from the 
United States into British America were $7,301,000, in 1863 $24,967,- 
000, in 1873 $47-375.000, in 1883 $56,032,000. in 1893 $58,221,000. In 
1853 Canadian exports to the United States amounted to $6,527,000, 
in 1863 to $17,484,000, in 1873 to $42,072,000, in 1883 to $41,668,000 
in 1893 to $43,923,000. It will be seen that the growth of this trade 
was large and steady until 1873, when it became almost stationary. 
Toward the end of the century it is expanding in imports as a result 
of specialized American manufactures, general good times and 
increased demand by Canadian manufacturers for raw material. 

Trade with Great Britain, meantime, showed a curious process of 
development. At the beginning and up to the middle of the centurj', 
most of the commerce of the Colonies had been transacted with the 
Mother-land. After that time, for reasons already mentioned, a good 
deal was diverted to the United States. Until 1S75, however, the Pro- 
vinces, or the Dominion, as the case might be, continued to obtain 
most of their imports from Great Britain — nearly double what they 
exported to her. In 1873 the exports to the Mother-land were $38,743,- 
000 and the imports from her $68,522,000; in 1893 ^'^^ exports had 
become $64,080,000, the imports $43,148,000 — almost a complete 
reversal. In 1S9S the position was still more striking with exports of 
$104,0,98,000 and imports of only $32,500,000. The reasons for this' 
transformation are several. The British market has consumed and 
required much more of Canadian food products. The latter have 
become better known and fewer shipments are going by the way of 
American ports to be classed as American products. 



THE GROWTH OF NATIONAL PROSPERFTY 603 

On the other hand Canadians have found that many special 
American manufactured articles were cheaper than the corresponding 
British goods or, perhaps, owing to British carelessness and indiffer- 
ence, easier to obtain. Contiguity and cheapness combined have had 
a pronounced effect in this connection and a good illustration of the 
fact may be seen in the iron and steel imports of Canada during two 
periods of five years each. In 18S2-S6 the Dominion bought from 
Great Britain, in round numbers, $44,000,000 worth of this great staple 
product and in 1894-98 $29,000,000 — a decrease of fifteen millions. 
In 1882-86 the Dominion bought from the United States $20,000,000 
worth of iron and steel, and in 1894-98 $41,000,000 — an increase of 
twenty-one millions, or more than double the original figure. Local 
conditions and increased industrial production within Canada have, of 
course, had something to do with this general decrease in the imports 
of British goods and it remains to be seen in 1900 and ensuing years 
what effect the preferential British tariff, inaugurated by the Laurier 
Government in 1898, may have upon this particular tendency of 
Canadian trade. 

A great and growing source of prosperity to Canada, in and about 
the year 1900, has been its mines. Iron and coal, lead, copper, nickel, 
mica, silver, gold, asbestos, and various other minerals, exist in immense 
quantities and some of them were long known to be products of Bri- 
tish America. But difficulties of transportation, of mining and of 
smelting the ore, and alarm as to the nature of the climate — coupled 
with general ignorance abroad concerning the vast resources which 
only a few knew anything about authoritatively — combined to prevent 
much being done until near the end of the century. British Columbia, it 
is true, shared in the California gold boom of the " fifties," its placer 
gold was pretty thoroughly explored and exploited and, in time, some 
$50,000,000 worth of gold dust was extracted from its streams and 
valleys. This, however, was merely skimming the surface. Nova 



6o4 THE GROWTH OF NATIONAL PROSPERfTV 

Scotia, for many years, kept up a small, steady and payinjj production 
of gold and coal, while salt and petroleum were long substantial pro- 
ducts of Ontario. An increasing consumption of Canadian coal was 
also visible as the years went on and tariffs were so arranged as to 
help Nova Scotia in the other Provinces. The e.xports of this product 
rose, very slowly, from 265,000 tons in 1868, to 1,140,000 tons in 1S99. 
But this production of coal only touched the surface of the vast 
resources which are now known to exist in Nova Scotia, in British 
Columbia and in the North-West Territories. 

Every effort has latterly been made by fiscal legislation and boun- 
ties — notably in Sir Charles Tupper's policy of 1883 — to encourage 
iron and steel industries in Canada ; but without very marked effect 
until the later " nineties," when blast furnaces began to increase in 
number and production in almost every part of Canada and especially in 
Nova Scotia, Ontario and British Columbia. The great Canadian 
development of this last decade has, however, been that of gold produc- 
tion. In 1894, the total for all Canada was $1,128,688, and at about 
that figure it had stood for twenty years. In 1896 it was $2,754,774, 
in the next year over $6,000,000, in 1898, $13,000,000 and, in 1S99, 
over $2 1,000,000. The main cause of this expansion was the discovery 
and development of the great Yukon District in respect of its bound- 
less resources in gold-seamed ore. There was also the discover)' of 
gold in the Lake of the Woods region of Ontario and the immense 
wealth in the same connection which was found to exist at Rossland 
and throughout the Kootenay District of British Columbia. Between 
1896 and 1899 the gold production of the Yukon, known to Canadian 
authorities, increased from $300,000 to $16,000,000, and the quantity 
of gold dust carried away yearly by American miners, and uncontrolled 
by the Government, must have made the figures of total production 
double the latter amount. Silver has also been found to be a large 
product of Canada, though not in later years a very profitable one, 



THE GROWTH OF NATIONAL PROSPERITY 607 

while nickel in great masses has been found along the northern shores 
of Lake Superior and is being rapidly developed as a result of 
inflowing British and American capital. The total figures of mineral 
production in the Dominion speak for themselves and amounted to a 
total value of $10,000,000 in 1893, $22,000,000 in 1896 and $48,000,- 
000 in 1899. 

Meanwhile, the farmer and the farmer's position had "been chang- 
ing greatly. The pioneer log-houses and shanties of the older Prov- 
inces had given place to comfortable farm-houses and large barns. 
The forest and wilderness had been replaced by smiling fields, or 
gardens, or fruit farms. The wooden home-made furniture of early 
times had disappeared, and even the antique relics of pre-RevoIution- 
ary days discarded for newly manufactured articles largely made in 
Canada ; and, from the ever-popular organ to the horse-hair sofa, every- 
thing in the farm-houses had begun to breathe of a newer and cheaper 
age. The era of machinery came also and did away with the working- 
man who, in large farms, had almost constituted villages in themselves. 
The rush and roar of the latter end of the nineteenth century has 
affected the young men of the farms and drawn many of them into the 
teemincr cities of the American States, or to the erowine centres of 
Ontario itself. The boom of Western progress attracted others and 
many a mortgage upon the homesteads of Ontario owed its origin to 
the settlement of sons in Manitoba or upon the Western plains. The 
question of the farmer's progress or otherwise is, therefore, a debat- 
able one. 

The area for his work, the opportunities of agriculture, the 
facilities for production, have all immensely increased. In Ontario, 
or Upper Canada as it then was, the area occupied in 1826 was 3,353,- 
000 acres and the cultivated area 599,000 acres ; in 184 1 the figures for 
the one were 6,868,000 and for the other 1,81 1,000 ; in 1891 the former 
amounted to 21,091,000 acres, the latter to 14, 157,000 acres. This is 



6o8 THE GROWTH OF NATIONAL PROSPERITY 

an enormous expansion for a Provincial population which only 
increased, in round numbers, from half a million to two millions. 
Added to this was the opening up of the vast wheat-fields of the 
West, the splendid ranching country of the Territories, the fruit- 
bearing regions of British Columbia. With it also came the develop- 
ment in cattle production marked by an export of live cattle to Great 
Britain in the four years, 1875-78, which was valued at $1,1 18,000 and 
in 1895-98 at $27,552,000 ; the expansion in the cheese industry from 
an export of $620,000 in 1868 to one of $16,776,000 in 1899 ; the 
growth of the export trade in bacon and hams from $783,000 in 1868 
to $10,416,478 in 1899 ; the fact of a total shipment to Great Britain 
of cattle, horses and sheep, between 1S74 and 1897, valued at $180,- 
000,000. 

Against these evident marks and signs of progress must be 
recorded the increase of debt and mortgages, the more expensive 
habits and style of living, the decrease in prices and values of 
property, marked in Ontario by a diminution in the value of farm 
lands of $92,000,000 between 1886 and 1S98. Upon the whole, how- 
ever, the Canadian farmer may be said, at the end of the nineteenth 
century, to be better off than most of his world-wide competitors and 
to possess enough of comforts and a sufficient absence of nature's 
abnormal incidents — hurricanes, insect pests, floods and climatic dis- 
asters of different kinds — to mark him out a fairly fortunate man. 

RAILWAYS, CANALS AM) SHIPPING 

In the matter of railways, Canada has made progress during its 
last fifty years of history which should be sufficient to stamp its 
people as an enterprising and capable population. When Confedera- 
tion brought the scattered Provinces together there were only two 
thousand miles of railway, largely in Ontario, and dreams of some- 
thing better. Then came the construction and rapid completion of the 
Inter-Colonial Railway, connecting the Atlantic towns with the City of 



THE GROWTH OF NATIONAL PROSPERITY 609 

Quebec and ultimately with Montreal ; the struogle for, and linal crea- 
tion of the trans-continental line which has made the Dominion a 
national unit in all matters of transportation and inter-communication ; 
the building of many other lines in all the Provinces and the formation 
of a general system which has made the country a net-work of busy 
railways, running into every important nook and corner, and totalling 
up, in 1899, to over seventeen thousand miles of track. With this 
period and part of the country's development the names of Sir 
William Van Home and Mr. T. G. Shaughnessy in the later history 
and management of the Canadian Pacific ; those of Charles J. Brydges, 
Sir Joseph Hickson and Charles M. Hays in the building up of the 
Grand Trunk system ; those of George Laidlaw, F. C. Capreol and 
Lieut-Colonel F. W. Cumberland, in the construction of lesser lines ; 
those of Sir Sandford Fleming, Thomas C. Keefer, and Walter 
Shanly, as engineers in charge of construction ; were intimately con- 
nected and should be remembered and recorded with honour. The 
bulk of the expansion was effected between 1875 and 1890 and, after 
the latter date, the progress continued to be steady and sure. In 
1875 the train mileage was, in round numbers, seventeen millions, 
in 1899 it was fifty-two millions. The number of passengers rose in 
the same period from five to nineteen millions, the tons of freight 
carried from five to thirty-one millions, the earnings from nineteen 
to sixty-two millions of dollars, the working expenses from fifteen 
to forty millions. 

Meanwhile, the canal system which connects the Great Lakes 
with the St. Lawrence and thence, through a reasonable deepening of 
the river itself at certain points, with the Atlantic, developed steadily 
and at great cost. Canal construction had been an evident necessity 
from the earliest period of British occupation in the countr)- and, even 
before the division of the Province in 1791, it was urgently advocated. 
In 181 5 a Legislative effort was made to begin the work by making 



6io THE GROWTH OF NATIONAL PROSPERITY 

the Lachine Canal above Montreal, but without success, and it was 
not until six years later that operations really commenced. Towards 
its construction the British Government contributed $400,cxx) and the 
same Government defrayed almost the entire expense of building the 
Rideau Canal between Ottawa and Kingston — $3,91 1,000 — as well as 
giving $222,000 to aid the Welland Canal project. Very slowly other 
improvements in the St. Lawrence navigation were effected. The 
Beauharnois Canal was opened in 1845 '^^^ some fifty years later 
replaced by the Soulanges Canal; the Cornwall was opened in 1843 ; 
the Williamsburg Series of three canals was completed in 1856 ; the 
Welland Canal, after prolonged pioneer work by the Hon. William 
Hamilton Meritt and many political and financial difficulties and 
failures, was commenced in 1S21 and sufficiently completed to permit 
of its use a dozen years later. The Richelieu Canals, connecting the 
St. Lawrence with Hudson River via the Richelieu and Lake 
Champlain, were practically commenced, after much controversy, in 
1835, and were in a sort of working order by 1S43. 

None of these works, however, were really completed at the 
time of opening. Changes and enlargements and improvements and, 
sometimes, complete renewals had to be effected. The Provinces 
were poor and, up to the Union in 1841, Lower Canada would do 
little or nothing to encourage developments of this nature. lis public 
men were too busy fighting for fancies and warring against wind-mills 
to care about coming down to practical every-day considerations such 
as the promotion of transportation facilities. Besides, such action might 
have helped the detested English merchant and this could hardly be a 
popular possibility to the French demagogue of 1S20-37. Much, how- 
ever, was done by men like the Hon. John Young, Sir Hugh Allan 
and W. Hamilton Merritt and, between 1S41 and Confederation, 
considerable progress was made and a total of $21,000,000 expended. 
The foundation had, in fact, been laid and, after 1S67, money was 



THE GROWTH OF NATIONAL PROSPERITY 6ii 

freely spent — to the tune of 5)^34,000,000 up to 1889 — in deepening, 
enlarging and strengthening the system. A uniform depth of fourteen 
feet in the whole vast waterway has been aimed at and, in 1897, over 
$4,000,000 more were voted by Parliament to complete this policy. 

The development of transportation upon lake and river and 
ocean has had a most important influence upon Canadian progress. 
The Indian birch-bark canoe was early replaced by the French 
batteau, and the Durham flat-bottomed boat. Upon the Great Lakes, 
also, sailing vessels of various kinds soon found a place in the stunted 
commerce of the period. The immense number of rivers and the 
absence of roads made water transport naturally popular with the 
pioneer traders although the absence of canals and deepening facili- 
ties rendered a great deal oi portaging, — the carrying of boats over or 
around an obstruction — necessary. The first steamer plying between 
Montreal and Quebec, on the St. Lawrence, was built by Mr. John 
Molson in 181 1, and twelve years later there were a dozen of them. 
In 1816, Lake Ontario saw its first steamer in the Frontenac, built at 
a cost of $75,000, and within twenty years from that time all the laro-er 
bodies of water throughout the country had steam-boats plying 
between the principal ports. With Mr. Molson in the pioneer labours 
of this development were chiefly associated John and David Torrance, 
Sir Hugh Allan and the Hon. John Hamilton. The first steamer on 
the Red River in the far West commenced operations in 1859; on 
the Pacific coast the first to ply between its various fur-bearing posts 
of the Hudson's Bay Company was the Beaver, which came out in 
1835 from England — after being launched by King William IV. in 
the presence of a great gathering of people. In the Atlantic Provinces 
the splendid harbour of Halifax was first entered by a steamer on 
August 31, 1 83 1, when the Royal JVilliam steamed in from Quebec 
and entered upon its career as the pioneer steamship of the vast 
Atlantic traffic of the end of the century. 



6i3 THE CKOWTH OF NATIONAL PROSPERITY 

Nine years later the Cunard Line, founded by Sir Samuel Cunard, 
commenced to call at llalifax, though it soon afterwards made New 
York its American terminus. The first coasting steamer of this 
region had been launched at St. John in iSi6. In the year 1900 
there are many lines of steamships running from Quebec, Montreal, 
Halifax or St. John to Great Britain, the United States, the West 
Indies, South America and Newfoundland ; while from \'ancouver 
on the Pacific similar lines run to the American Pacific cities, to 
Honolulu, Australia, Hong-Kong and Japan. Of these various 
transportation agencies the Allan Line was started in 1852 by Mr. 
Hueh Allan, the Dominion Line in iSro, the Richelieu and Ontario 
Navigation Company in 1S45. The latter was re-organized in 1882 
by Mr. L A. Senecal, a noted figure in the financial life of Quebec. 
The Canadian Pacific Railway Lines were started on the Pacific in 
1 89 1 and preceded by large boats upon the Great Lakes under the 
same management. By the year 1 896 the Canadian tonnage arriving at 
Canadian ports included 6,810 vessels of i,o67,cxx) tons, 1,684 British 
vessels of 2,350,000 tons, and 6,797 foreign vessels of 5,845,000 tons. 

The ship-building industry had, of course an intimate connection 
with Canadian development along these lines. The immense inland 
resources of forest and timber made Quebec and the Atlantic coast 
ideal places for building ships in the days before iron and steel had 
worked their industrial and naval revolution. As far back as 1672, 
Talon, the eminent Intendant of New France, ordered the building 
of a ship at Quebec. During the century which followed, mainly 
under the French rc^mc, ship-building was but a fitful pursuit, as 
were all industrial and commercial matters in that period. After i 787, 
however, the trade revived and increased from a production of ten 
ships of 933 tons in that year to 84 ships of 21,616 tons in 1875 — a 
total during the whole period of 3,873 ships with a tonnage of 1,285,- 
000. Latterlv the trade has diminished but, at Ouebec as in Nova 



THE GROWTH OF NATIONAL PROSPERITY 613 

Scotia, it is not improbable tliat modern constructive materials and 
methods will yet revive the old glories of the industry. In the latter 
Province the palmy days of ship-building were in the middle of the 
nineteenth, century, when Halifax, Yarmouth, Windsor and Pictou 
were great centres of production and Nova Scotia bottoms were to be 
found in every port of the maritime world. Decay has come to the 
industry since 18S2, and the only hope of revival lies in the utiliza- 
tion of the coal and iron which lie side by side, almost upon the coast, 
and might well form the basis of a great future in iron and steel ship- 
building;. 

BANKING DEVELOPMENT 

Canadian general progress owes much to the banking system of 
the Dominion. Like every other interest or institution in the coun- 
try it has experienced ups and downs and faced difficulties and 
dangers. When the Quebec Bank and Bank of Montreal were 
started in 181 7, in the then chief centres of trade and business, the 
banking of the country consisted in managing its shipments of furs 
and transport of timber and in lending money to the men engaged in 
operations which covered thousands of miles of wilderness in Upper 
Canada and the far West In time other banks started. The Bank 
of British North America was established by London capitalists in 
1836. The Bank of Upper Canada was organized in 1823 by men 
largely interested in the dominant party of that day and it continued 
during many years of great prosperity and eventual adversity to be 
somewhat of a political institution. The Commercial Bank of the 
Midland District, in the same Province, was formed in 1832 and others 
followed until, in 1S59, after the commercial crisis of the preceding 
year had come and gone, there were fifteen banks in the Canadas 
with a capital of $24,000,000 as against $3,000,000 when originally 
chartered. In the Maritime Provinces the Bank of Nova Scotia, one 
of the earliest and also one of the most notable institutions, was 



6i4 THE GROWTH OF NATIONAL PROSPERITY 

organized in 1832. In point of time it was preceded by the Bank 
of New Brunswick which had been incorporated in 1820. 

Smaller institutions came and went in all the Provinces until, at 
Confederation in 1S67, the Bank of Montreal with its twenty-nine 
branches and a capital of :S6,ooo,ooo. the Bank of British North Amer- 
ica with its twelve branches and capital of $4,866,000, the Commercial 
Bank of Canada with its eighteen branches and §4.000,000 capital, were 
the principal institutions. There were then twenty-eight banks, 
altogether, with 125 branches and a paid-up capital of $32,000,000. 
The system, as existing in that year, and not yet matured and consoli- 
dated by Federal legislation, was a product of varied experiments and 
experiences. The early banking of the country had been carried on 
by American methods; although, as time went on, the Scotch ideas 
of the founders came more and more into effect and the internal man- 
agement of the banks larorelv followed British methods. The inaug- 
uration of the branch system strengthened this tendency and marked 
an important differentiation from American models. Still, there was 
a strong Legislative tendency to copy the United States in financial 
matters and, from time to time, dangerous experiments were tried — 
such, for instance, as the suspension of specie payments in 1837 
against which -Sir Francis Bond Head had protested so vigourously and 
uselessly to his Upper Canadian Legislature. To the intervention 
at this time of the Liiperial Government, the wise despatches of Lord 
Glenelg, Colonial Secretary, and the later series of regulations pro- 
pounded by Lord John Russell, Canada owes much of the stability 
and success of its present system. The proposals of Lord J. Russell 
in 1840 form, in fact, the basis of Canadian banking charters and laws. 

At Confederation, the Government was faced with the necessity 
of a thorough re-organization of the banking system of the country. 
Practically it had to be federalized and made into a national insti- 
tution. The preliminaries were gone into by the Finance Minister, 




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THE GROWTH OF NATIONAL PROSPERITY 617 

Mr. (afterwards Sir) John Rose, largely in consultation with Mr. E. 
H. King-, who was then head of the Bank of Montreal and the 
leading banker in Canada. Inlluenccd by Mr. King and, perhaps, 
by his own financial fancies, he proposed to establish what was, in the 
main, the American system of banking and currency. The proposals, 
as eventually presented to Parliament, excited the keenest controversy, 
.were vigorously denounced by Mr. George Brown and the Torotito 
Globe, and were eventually withdrawn. Sir Francis Hincks succeeded 
Mr. Rose in the Ministry of Finance and, in March 1870, introduced 
a series of Resolutions which were finally passed and under which the 
existing system was established. Under succeeding Finance Minis- 
ters every decade has seen a revision and improvement of existing 
arrangements and Sir Leonard Tilley, Mr. George E. Foster and 
Mr. W. S. Fielding have each had to do with this perfecting of bank- 
ing legislation. 

The statistical progress of banking since Confederation has been 
very great. The paid-up capital of Canadian banks has increased 
from $30,000,000 in 1868, in round numbers, to $62,000,000 in 1896 ; 
the notes in circulation from $9,000,000 to $31,000,000; the deposits 
from $33,000,000 to $193,000,000 ; the discounts from $52,000,000 to 
$213,000,000. The total assets in 1868 were $79,000,000 and the lia- 
bilities $45,000,000. In 1896 they were, respectively, $320,000,000 
and $232,000,000. Some of the representative bankers in early days 
were Thomas G. Ridout of the Bank of Upper Canada and the suc- 
cessive General Managers of the Bank of Montreal — Benjamin 
Holmes, Alexander Simpson, David Davidson and E. H. King. 
Later occupants of this position, as the bank rose into one of the 
three or four greatest financial institutions in the world were, of 
course, men of much ability and wide influence. R. B. Angus, C. F. 
Smithers, W. J. Buchanan and E. S. Clouston have, in their turn, had 
a substantial share in the development of Canada and one which the 



6i8 THE GROWTH OF NATIONAL PROSPERITY 

average liistorian is far too ready to overlook in favour of the utter- 
ances of some prominent politician as he floats by on a passing wave 
of popular opinion. James Stevenson of the Quebec Bank, George 
Hague of the Merchants Bank, D. R. Wilkie of the Imperial Bank, 
Byron E. Walker of the Canadian Bank of Commerce, Thomas 
Fyshe of the Bank of Nova Scotia, arc men of a later period and of 
considerable public induence. 

In other directions Canadian development has been pronounced. 
Partly because of the protection given to its industries by the tariff 
and partly because of the growing efificiency of manufacturers and 
increase of population in the country, there has been considerable 
industrial development. In iSgi, there were, according to the census 
returns, 75,941 manufacturing establishments in Canada, with a work- 
ing capital of $181,000,000 and which employed 370,000 men, women 
and children, paid out one hundred millions of dollars in wages, 
used raw material to the value of $256,000,000 and had a total pro- 
duction valued at $476,000,000. An important national interest 
and industry of Canada has always been its fisheries, and sometimes 
they have also proved a factor of international importance. The 
fish of the Great Lakes ; of the lesser bodies of water scattered 
in immense numbers throughout all the Provinces and, especially, in 
the far north and west, between Lake Superior, Hudson's Bay and 
the Arctic Ocean ; of the rivers flowing in all directions throughout the 
three million square miles of Canadian territory ; are inexhaustible in 
variety and numbers. 

The sea-fisheries on the Atlantic coast of Canada are of orreat 

O 

value though the annual average production does not exceed ten 
million dollars. Cod, herring, lobsters, salmon, haddock, halibut and 
hake on the Atlantic, with seal and salmon on the Pacific, and white- 
fish, salmon-trout, sturgeon, pickerel, pike, black-bass, perch and carp 
in the lakes and rivers, are the most numerous and best known 



THE GROWTH OF NATIONAL PROSPERITY 619 

products of these varied waters. Since 1869 the value of the fish 
extracted from th^: lakes and rivers and sea-board of the various 
Provinces is stated at ;^28, 000,000 for Ontario, ^54,000,000 for Quebec, 
$180,000,000 for Nova Scotia, $81,000,000 for New Brunswick, 
$5,600,000 for the North-West, $45,000,000 for British Columbia, 
$25,000,000 for little Prince Edward Island. In the seal fisheries of 
British Columbia, about which there has been such pronounced inter- 
national controversy, there were some 14,000 Canadians engaged in 
1895, with sixty-one vessels and 638 boats and canoes. Away to the 
farthest north of the Dominion are the richest whaling-grounds in the 
world — the last resort of the leviathans. The walrus, sea-trout, the 
inconnu, pike, sturgeon, and other fish, also abound in these waters. 
To sum up, it may be said that the estimated value of the product of 
Canadian fisheries was $150,000 in 1850, six and a half millions in 
1870, fourteen millions in 1880, thirty millions in 1900. 

Such has been the material progress of Canada in its more 
important aspects. It has been considerable, and the picture as a 
whole reveals a panorama of development which makes some measure 
of pride not unbecoming in the Canadian of the last days of the 
nineteenth century. But it is nothing in comparison to the resources 
and possibilities afforded by the water-ways, the fertile plains and soil, 
the vast mineral regions and the rich fisheries of the Dominion. 
Much has been done by legislation to help the development of these 
resources and, perhaps, the most pronounced lesson taught by 
Canadian history, outside of the teachings afforded by a persistent 
loyalty amongst the people to British connection and the Crown, is 
the importance of legislation dealing with the promotion of material 
wealth and the comparative un-importance of mere party conflicts and 
even constitutional struggles. 



CHAPTER XXX 

External Relations of the Dominion 

THE relations between Great Britain and Canada during the 
period of their connection under the Crown have no exact, or 
even near, parallel in history. British America was acquired 
in the first place rather as a graduated result of the world-wide strug- 
gle between France and England than because of any set British plan 
or purpose. It was not conquered because any particular value was 
expected to accrue from its acquisition, nor was it retained for any 
other reason than a feeling of responsibility to its people and honour 
in its possession. Incidentally, the determination not to let France 
extend its power by retaining the country after its final British con- 
quest had something to do with the situation ; while, as a dim percep- 
tion commenced to enter the English mind after the Treaty of 1783 
with the United States that, perhaps, the American child of Revolu- 
tion was not as willing to be friendly as was expected, or desired, 
a determination not to enhance American power by the cession, or 
neelect, of the Northern Provinces also became a lever in their reten- 
tion. 

Prior to this time the whole region had been a veritable shuttle- 
cock of fortune ; mere cards in a great game of European war and 
maritime adventure. New France, Acadie, and the Hudson's Bay 
Company, had been mixed up in whole, or in part, in numerous trea- 
ties before the final settlement came. The Treaty of Susa in 1629, 
the Treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye in 1632, the Treaty of Westmin- 
ster in 1655, the Treaty of Buda in 1667, the Treaty of Ryswick in 
1697, the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 
620 



EXTERXAL RELATIONS OF THE DOMINION 621 

1748, all dealt with the interests or territory of the scattered popula- 
tion of the region which now constitutes the Dominion. With the 
settlement afforded by the Treaty of Paris, in 1763, came a new com- 
plication in affairs, the removal of a foreign factor from the American 
scene — except in the far South — and the creation of a common tie of 
allegiance between the one-time French and Entjlish Colonial ene- 
mies. 

Twenty years sufficed to change conditions again and, by the 
Treaty of 1783, to recognize the Thirteen Colonies as an independent 
and alien Power and to constitute the French population, by the 
strange irony of fate, as the guardians of British territory and its 
restricted continental influence. The Treaty did more than this. 
Relying upon anticipated American friendship, free trade and alliance 
it endowed the United States with all the vast natural wealth of the 
Mississippi and the Ohio valleys and just avoided transferring Quebec 
to the same country and people. It, in fact, provided the United 
States with " gigantic boundaries on the south and west and north 
which determined its coming power and influence."* Other treaties 
relating to boundaries, and ineffective in operation except as they 
tended to advance American claims and to continually indicate a 
British spirit of conciliation, were signed in 1794 and in 1803 by repre- 
sentatives of the two countries. 

In a territorial sense, therefore, the Dominion of Canada was 
born out of a condition of absolute indifference on the part of Great 
Britain, and, until the legislation of 1791, was cradled in a state of 
happy ignorance. The War of 18 12 effected changes of great impor- 
tance. It settled the drift of destiny for at least forty years along 
British lines ; it established a new and strong tie between Great Bri- 
tain and the immense, unknown territory which had been thus preserved 
to the Crown by the bravery of its sons; it drew a line of fluctuating, 

* Justin Winsor's America. V. 17, p. 150. 
53 



62J EXTERNAL RELATIONS OF THE DOMINION 

but Still distinct character, against American expansion to the north. 
The Treaty of Ghent, in 1814, by which the struggle was con- 
cluded, contained no very new assertions or principles though out of 
it came a couple of somewhat important arrangements. By an informal 
diplomatic agreement between Sir Charles Bagot, British Minister at 
Washington, and Mr. Richard Rush, Acting-Secretary of State, in 
April 18 1 7, it was decided that all armed vessels on the Great Lakes 
should be dismantled and no more built, or armed therein. Great 
Britain and the United States should, however, each be allowed one 
vessel, not exceeding one hundred tons burthen and armed with an 
eighteen-pound cannon, on Lakes Ontario and Champlain, and two 
similar vessels on the Upper Lakes. The agreement was to be bind- 
ing until si.x months notice was given by either Power and, though 
never formally ratified by Congress or specially approved by Parlia- 
ment, it has since come to have the force of a treaty. 

EARLY NEGOTIATION'S AND TREATIES 

The Convention of London, in 1818, was negotiated and signed 
with a view to the settlement of the fisheries question and the claims 
made by the United States to fish freely in British waters. The 
matter has been partly gone into elsewhere in this volume, but it is of 
such importance to a comprehension of general international relations 
that the Convention may be stated here to have given United States 
fishermen the right to fish outside of a three mile limit of the British 
shores in America and to enter British bays or harbours for shelter, 
food, water and repairs. .A.t the same time, the United States Gov- 
ernment renounced definitely any liberty on the part of their fisher- 
men to take, dry, or cure, fish on, or within three miles of. the coast 
of British North America. So far the arrangement was a good one 
for the Colonists and their country'. At this point, however, the terms 
of the Convention passed on to deal with boundary matters and a 
combination of British indifTcrence to territory and of utter ignorance 



EXTERNAL RELATIONS OF THE DOMINION 623 

of American character, aggressiveness and ambitions marked every 
phase of the negotiations — as they continued to do for another half 
century. It was provided that the international boundary should be 
along the 49th parallel of north latitude from the Lake of the 
Woods to the Rocky Mountains and that the country west of that 
great range, which was claimed by either party, should be free and 
open to the people of both nations for ten years. 

Such an extraordinary clause as the latter was, perhaps, never 
included in a treaty before. The claims of the Americans to any of the 
country now included in the States of Oregon and Washington were, 
at best, tentative and very weak. It is not likely that a strong stand 
would have been resented at this time to the point of war and, if it had 
to come to that issue, ten years prolongation of the claims and agitation 
could only serve to strengthen American feelings, American rights of 
occupation and American power. The "settlement" simply post- 
poned consideration of the matter until United States citizens should 
have time to pour into the country and claim it by virtue of present 
colonization, if not by right of discovery, or early and temporary 
occupation. Excuse for the apparently utter absence of statecraft in 
this arrangement is, perhaps, found in the severe sufferings and 
increased poverty of the poor classes in Great Britain which followed 
upon the conclusion of the tremendous struggle with Napoleon ; the 
rising influence of George Canning and his policy of attempted 
alliance with the United States against the despotic Powers of Europe 
as voiced in the creation of the original Monroe doctrine ; the entire 
absence in the public mind of England of any knowledge or appreci- 
ation of the possible value of these regions — a condition brought 
home to Canadians themselves more than a century later by Mr. Blake's 
description of British Columbia as nothing but a " sea of mountains." 

The next Treaty affecting British America was that of 1S25, 
between Great Britain and Russia, by which it was provided that "the 



624 EXTERNAL RELATIONS OF THE DOMINION 

subjects of His Britannic Majesty, from whatever quarter they may 
arrive, whether from the ocean or from the interior of the continent, 
shall forei'er enjoy the right of navij^ating freely and without any 
hindrance whatever, all the rivers (in Alaska) which in their course 
toward the Pacific Ocean may cross the line of demarcation." This 
clause was considered, and admitted, as binding upon the United 
States when the Republic afterwards purchased and took over the 
country from Russia. In 1842 and 1846 came two arrangements with 
the United States which stamp the astuteness of American leaders 
and the blunders of British statecraft in broad and vivid outline upon 
the map of Canada. 

Around and through them runs that thread of political thought 
which did so much in its da)- to diminish British power and to weaken 
^x\\!\^ prestige — the policy of the Manchester School. What were 
territorial rights, or the future interests of Canadians, or the develop- 
ment of British power on the American continent, in comparison with 
an undisturbed peace which might facilitate the sale of a few more 
bales of cotton goods and promote immunity from increased responsi- 
bility or a little fresh taxation ? They were nothing to men like John 
Bright, who had now begun to dominate public sentiment in England 
upon questions of this kind and who was able, not long after these 
events, to express pious and cosmopolitan aspirations for a future 
American Republic which should stretch in one unbroken expanse of 
life and liberty and happiness from southern seas to the Arctic 
regions ! 

TRE.\TIES OF 1 842 .\ND 1 846 

The Maine and Oregon boundary questions, which were dis- 
posed of by these Treaties, very nearly carried the two nations 
into war. Had one of them been any other than Great Britain, with 
her lack of territorial ambition and her good-natured endurance of 
youthful American aggressiveness, such a result would have been 



EXTER.WIL RELATIONS OF THE DOMINION 627 

certain. The description - of United States policy and diplomacy, 
as being, usually, vigorous to the point of aggression and forcible 
beyond the bounds of European etiquette, is not necessarily one of 
censure. The authorities at Washington, in all these negotiations 
and wars of a century, believed in the value of Continental soil and 
in the importance of rounding off their territories north and south — 
whether by the acquisition of California and Nevada and New Mexico, 
the annexation of Texas, or the acquisition of a part of New Brunswick 
and the States of Oregon and Washington. They had a distinct, 
though not always direct, policy of expansion and that they followed 
this up at the expense of Canada and Great Britain reflects credit 
upon their astuteness and only discredit upon the statecraft of Eng- 
land. Well-meant friendliness or conciliation, when not reciprocated, 
is simply weakness of the worst kind. 

The Maine question had been simmering since 1783 when the 
Treaty of that year determined the boundary between the State 
and the Province of New Brunswick to be the St. Croix River, with 
a line drawn from its source to the highlands dividing the waters fall- 
ing into the Atlantic from those emptying into the St. Lawrence. 
The first form of the dispute was as to which river was the true St. 
Croix. This was settled against the Americans by a discovery of the 
remains of De Monts' unfortunate colony on the island at its mouth. 
Then, as the river had branches widely separated at the mouth, the 
issue turned upon which branch was meant in the Treaty. This was 
also settled in favour of the British by special Commissioners. Then, 
finally, the dispute turned upon the highlands ; what they were and 
where they were. The American claim would have given the United 
States many of the largest tributaries of the St. John and a large 
part of New Brunswick. Not an iota of their contention would they 
abandon, or compromise, and ultimately, as settlers came into the dis- 
puted region, matters grew serious. 



623 EXTERNAL RELATIONS OF THE DOMINION 

After a particularly violent quarrel, involving the despatch of 
British troops and Maine militia to the scene, the question was 
referred, in 1S29, to the arbitration of the King of the Netherlands. 
He declared, after prolonged examination, that the matter was 
beyond his power to determine and suggested a division of the terri- 
tory in dispute. This was acceptable to neither country and the 
quarrel dragged on until 1839, when American cities bordering upon 
Upper Canada were sending out hordes of Fenian and other filibus- 
ters to prey upon their neighbour's territory. From Maine went a lot 
of lumbermen who entered the disputed territory to take logs and in 
the face of the laws of both State and Province. The authorities of 
Maine and New Brunswick each despatched men to guard their 
interests and a fight took place amid the snow and ice of the forest 
wilderness. Sir John Harvey, Governor of New Brunswick, immedi- 
ately issued a proclamation asserting British rights and demanding 
the retirement of American troops. Governor Fairfield, of Maine, 
responded by calling out 10,000 troops for active service. 

W.VR WITH AMERICA IMMINENT 

War seemed imminent. Daniel Webster and other antagonists 
of England in the Republic clamoured for the arbitrament of force. 
The papers and the politicians were full of determination to take the 
territory. New Brunswick responded by sending regiments and artil- 
lery and volunteers to the front and the whole Province teemed with 
loyal excitement. The Canadas promised substantial aid and Nova 
Scotia voted ^100,000 and all her militia amid intense enthusiasm 
and in a crowded House. Great Britain temporized, however, and 
the Lo7idott Times, then and for many years the narrow but powerful 
organ of the Little Englanders, proposed that everything should be 
given up to the Americans which Liy west of the St. John River. 
Thus peace would prevail and beside such a result what mattered 
the interests and the territory of loyal Colonists ? It was the spirit 



EXTERNAL RELATIONS OF THE DOMINION 629 

of the times in England and serves to show the strength of a British 
sentiment in Canada which could live through and ultimately over- 
come it. President Van Buren was not, fortunately, of the same 
mind as Webster and his friends and he, therefore, despatched 
General Winfield Scott to the scene of trouble with apparent instruc- 
tions to try and effect a compromise. Scott was a brave and judicious 
officer who had served against Harvey at Lundy's Lane and Stony 
Creek and it was not lon<j before the two came to an acrreement 
which involved a temporary joint occupation of the disputed territory. 

Three years later Lord Ashburton and Daniel Webster were 
appointed Commissioners to settle the dispute. They were admirably 
fitted to duplicate the events of 17S3 and 1818. The one was a good- 
natured believer in peace — at a high price if necessary — and was 
personally interested, through his connection with the Barings, in 
American financial securities. This latter point might not have 
directly affected his action, because no one has ever disputed his per- 
sonal sense of honour, but the fact of his being a member of the school 
of political thought which considered British external responsibilities 
as a burden and Colonial possessions as useless is beyond question. 
His appointment is, therefore, a standing disgrace to the Melbourne 
Government. In 1843, after the Treaty was negotiated, he declared, 
according to Greville's Memoirs, that " the whole territory was worth 
nothing" and, in 1846, he assured the House of Commons regarding 
the kindred Oregon territory dispute that it was " a question worth- 
less in itself." Webster, on the other hand, was a keen American 
statesman, with a shrewdness which bordered on unscrupulousness 
and without any hampering friendship for England or for British 
interests. 

The result of such negotiations was inevitable. Out of the 
12,000 square miles of disputed territory, 5,000 went to New Bruns- 
wick ; 7,000 square miles of the most valuable portion went to Maine ; 



630 EXTERNAL RELATIONS OE THE DOMfNfON 

the Dominion of tlie future was shut off from an Atlantic winter 
port ; a wedge of American soil was pushed up into the heart of the 
Maritime Provinces ; and Lord Ashburton returned to England with 
a treaty of renewed peace and amity. Incidentally, Mr. Webster was 
able to ensure the ratification of the Treaty in the American Senate 
by showing that body a map drawn by Franklin in connection with 
the arrangements of 1783 and marked by a red line which revealed 
the British contention to be absolutely correct. Such was the Ash- 
burton Treaty and its environment of events. 

That of Oregon was even worse for British and Canadian inter- 
ests. By the Convention of 181 8, as already mentioned, there was a 
large extent of unoccupied territory on the Pacific coast which Eng- 
land seemed to care little about and which was held for the Crown by 
the very insecure and vague lease of the Hudson's Bay Company — 
the claims to which were supported by the discoveries of Captain 
Cook, Vancouver, and other seamen or travelers. The whole region 
had been thrown open to general settlement in 181S and, in 1826, a 
sort of internal agreement was come to by which the 49th parallel 
was accepted as the Continental boundary line. This left the British 
Columbia of to-day on one side of the line and the future States of 
Oregon and Washington upon the other — with the Hudson's Bay 
Company exercising its commercial privileges and a sort of shadowy 
sovereignty over the whole region. About 1845, however, their diplo- 
matic success in the Maine matter had been so marked, and the desire 
to expand westward had grown so strong, that the United States 
papers and politicians, and the people themselves, began to clamour 
for the whole Pacific coast territory right up to the bounds of Russian 
Alaska. The agitation grew with what it fed upon and very soon 
the cry of " fifty-four, forty or fight " — in reference to the Southern 
boundary of Russian America being at latitude 54° 40' — rang through 
the Republic in very threatening tones. 



EXTERNAL RELATIONS OF THE nOMINfON 631 

Commissioners were appoinlcd and, althoug^h the American Gov- 
ernment did not get all they desired, they did obtain by the Oregon 
Treaty of 1846 the splendid Puget Sound region and the lower valley 
of the Columbia, to which it is hard indeed to find any legitimate 
right or proven claim. The further question of the boundary delimi- 
tation through the Fuca Straits, under this Treaty, caused the San 
Juan question of a later date, the joint occupation of the little island 
by British and American troops in 1856 and the arrival of General 
Winfield Scott, in 1859, '^^ once more act the part of pacificator. A 
temporary settlement, which lasted until 1872, was patched up and 
then the German Emperor, acting as Arbitrator under the terms of 
the Treaty of Washington, decided in favour of the American conten- 
tion as to the boundary channel and awarded San Juan Island to the 
United States. Meanwhile, the Reciprocity Treaty had been made 
in 1854, and this event marked the one diplomatic development in the 
history of British America where Canadian interests were fully and 
adequately guarded. Its abrogation in 1866 marked also the high- 
water period In modern American hostility toward England and the 
Provinces. 

THE FENIAN RAIDS 

A word must be said here as to the Fenian raids. References 
have already been made to them but their scope and character were 
of such a nature as to fittingly warrant special consideration in this 
place. Like the raids made by the rebels of 1837 and their filibus- 
tering friends from across the border in 1838-9, these incidents of 
frontier aggressiveness grew naturally out of the bitter feelings 
against England which had been cultivated as a duty and a pleasure 
by Irishmen living in the United States. When the United States, 
in 1866, began to press Great Britain for compensation in the Alabama 
case and to develop the keen feelings of animosity which found vent 
in the rejection of the Reverdy Johnson Treaty and in the abrogation 



63* EXTERNAL RELATIONS OF THE DOMlNfON 

of the Canadian Reciprocity Treaty, the Irish Revolutionary Brother- 
hood of New York and other cities found its opportunity for self- 
assertion and attempted achievement. Popular ignorance of the con- 
dition, population, sentiments and constitutional system of British 
America had something to do with the large and immediate response 
to a call to arms issued by the organization ; popular belief in the 
fact of British tyranny and the British flag being synonymous terms, 
and of similar application in Ireland and in Canada, also assisted; 
while the existence of a large body of men who had become accus- 
tomed to the free, fighting life of soldiers in the Civil War and were 
not now inclined to settle down in the industrious paths of peace, was 
a source of much strength to the movement. 

After months of public drilling and arming in American border 
towns, the announcement came across the frontier in March 1866, 
that an invasion might be expected on St. Patrick's Day. Ten thou- 
sand militia were promptly ordered out by Major-General Sir P. L. 
McDougall, then Commander of the forces in British America, and 
14,000 appeared on parade the day after the order was issued. They 
were on duty for some weeks but as no hostile action was taken, 
except an attempt to seize an island on the coast of New Brunswick 
which was promptly met by the calling out of the Provincial militia, 
the most of them were allowed to return home. On June i, 1S66, 
however, the actual raid commenced with the landing of 1,000 Feni- 
ans from Buffalo on the banks of the Niaeara River, near Fort Erie, 
and the capture of that place. Colonel Peacocke, of the i6th Regi- 
ment, was placed in command of the forces on the frontier and these 
soon included some 500 regular troops, a battery of Royal Artiller)', the 
13th Battalion of Militia under Lieutenant-Colonel Booker, the York 
and Caledonia Companies of \'olunteers, the Dunnville Naval\'olun- 
tcers, the Governor-General's Body-Guard of Toronto under Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel G. T. Denison, the 19th Battalion of St. Catharines, 



EXTERNAL RELATIONS OF THE DOMINION 633 

the Queen's Own and Royal Grenadiers of Toronto — the former under 
Lieutenant-Colonel Stoughton Dennis — and the Welland Artillery. 
There were about 2,300 men altogether. 

The intention of the Fenians was to destroy the Welland Canal, 
but at Ridgeway they were met by 840 militiamen under Colonel 
Booker. Owing to the failure of a subordinate officer to carry 
out certain instructions, the arrangements for co-operation between 
the forces of Booker and Peacocke failed to materialize and the 
former's force, after fighting for some time, finally retired before the 
Fenians with a loss of nine killed and thirty wounded. The battle of 
Ridgeway was nominally a defeat and especially regrettable because 
it prevented the capture of the Fenian army which might have been 
accomplished had the original plan of operations been carried out. 
However, it saved the canal and seems to have sufificiently scared the 
invaders. Neither Colonel Peacocke nor Colonel Booker were to blame 
for the result, although both have suffered much from unjust and ignor- 
ant criticism. Shortly after the fight the Fenians escaped across the 
river under cjuard of an American afunboat. For several weeks, how- 
ever, some seven thousand of them remained concentrated at Buffalo, 
threatening another attack, and a strong force was maintained at Fort 
Erie to meet any such attempt. Meanwhile, a large body of filibus- 
ters had gathered at Ogdensburgh, N. Y., but the presence of 2,000 
regulars and volunteers who had rapidly gathered at Prescott, and of a 
gunboat patrolling the St. Lawrence, effectually prevented an attack. 
On June 7th, some eighteen hundred of the enemy crossed the frontier 
into the Eastern Townships of Quebec but, on hearing of the concen- 
tration of 1,100 regulars and militiamen at Huntington, with a reserve 
of 5,000 troops at Montreal, they very wisely did not press the advance 
and shortly afterwards dispersed. This ended the Raid of 1S66. 

Four years afterwards large numbers of Fenians gathered on the 
frontiers of Quebec and again the militia had to be called out. 



634 EXTERNAL RELATIONS OF THE DOMINION 

Within three days of the call, 13,489 men, with eighteen field-guns. 
were in position at the points designated and. on May 25th, 1870, a 
skirmish took place at Eccles' Hill, in Mississquoi, in which 200 
P'cnians were driven out of a strong position and across the border 
by forty men of the 60th Battalion and some thirty-seven farmers of 
the neighbourhood, under Lieut-Colonel Brown Chamberlin. A 
second invasion in the Huntington direction was met and similarly 
repulsed. In Ontario there were other alarms and threatened 
invasions, but no actually hostile effort. Over a year later, in October, 
1 87 1, a small band of Fenians crossed the Manitoba border, but were 
followed by American troops and taken back without having time to 
inflict any injury. This ended the Fenian raids which, in direct 
expenditure, cost the Provinces a million and a quarter dollars and, 
in the more indirect losses to business and trade, a much larger sum. 
They are notable for showing the extraordinary inconsistency at 
times visible in American politics and diplomacy. Although demand- 
incr immense sums from Great Britain for the accidental escape of the 
Alabama from a British liarbour, the same Government and people 
openly permitted these Fenian invaders of a presumably friendly 
state to arm and drill within American territory, to march out of that 
territory on an avowed mission of war and bloodshed, and to return 
again without fear and without punishment. They let this go on for 
years and result in repeated invasion; even while repudiating responsi- 
bility during concurrent negotiations. And, finally, they refused all 
indemnification, or even a consideration of it, to the Canadian victims 
of this "neutral" system. The raids arc interesting, also, as illustrating 
the attitude of England towards the States, her intense desire to avoid 
irritating subjects of discussion, her willingness to pay Canada's 
claims upon the Republic rather than to herself press demands for 
compensation. In this way, and for these reasons, the losses of 
Canada were not considered in the Treaty of Washington, and the 




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EXTERNAL RELATIONS OF THE DOMINION 637 

United States escaped all responsibility for its practical, though not 
technical, share in the invasions. 

THE HEMRING SEA QUESTION 

Following the Treaty of Washington, which settled Anglo-Ameri- 
can disputes for a few years, came the Atlantic fisheries trouble which 
would have been disposed of in iSSS by the Treaty negotiated in that 
year between Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, Sir Charles Tupper and the 
Hon. Thomas F. Bayard, had the arrangement been ratified by the 
American Senate. Then, the Behring Sea question developed and the 
United States practically demanded the control of the seal fisheries of 
the Pacific Coast and the right to suppress British fishing in the waters 
of that region. The real reason for this action is to be found in the 
claims of the Alaskan Seal Company — an American corporation of 
great wealth and influence — to a monopoly in those waters; the nominal 
reason given was the prevention of pelagic, or open sea, sealing in 
order to avert the extinction of the herd. This latter point was 
practically disposed of by the Report of a Commission of Inquiry 
appointed by Great Britain and composed of the late Sir George 
Baden-Powell, M. P., and Professor George M. Dawson of Ottawa. 
It showed clearly that the herd was, in the first place, in no danger of 
extinction and the evidence indicated that, if it were, the Alaskan 
Company and the American sealers were hardly the best guardians of 
its welfare. 

In 1892, a treaty was made by which the whole matter was 
referred to arbitration and, at the tribunal which subsequently met at 
Paris, with Sir John Thompson, Premier of Canada, as one of the 
British Arbitrators, Sir Charles Hibbert Tupper as British Agent and 
Mr. Christopher Robinson, O. C, of Toronto, as one of the British 
Counsel, a decision was given upholding Canada and Britain in prac- 
tically every point. Damages for the seizures of British ships which 
had been made in Pacific waters were awarded and the amount left to 



638 EXTERNAL RELATIONS OF THE DOMtN/ON 

future assessment. After prolonged controversy this also was settled 

by a Convention held in Washington, in i.Sg6, and nearly half a mil- 
lion dollars was paid to Canadian sealers in compensation for their 
losses. 

Meantime, the inevitable boundary trouble had developed in 
Alaska as a result of the purchase of that region from Russia in 1867 
and the negotiation of a treaty two years later which proved abortive. 
The question is a complicated one and the details impossible of presen- 
tation here. Efforts were made at Washington in 1870 to dispose 
of it and, finally, in 1892, a treaty was signed by which a joint or 
co-incident survey of the disputed region was to be rnade with a view 
to the delimitation of the boundary line. Despite continued efforts 
by Canada, however, no definite steps were taken by the United 
States until, in 1S96, gold discoveries were made in the British Yukon 
region, the country became suddenly famous and the whole question 
assumed an important as well as a perplexing aspect. Then the 
demands for settlement came from the Republic ; demands which 
increased in scope as population poured into the disputed section and 
as its importance became enhanced to the interested view of the 
American people. Great efforts were made by the Laurier Govern- 
ment, in 1897, to have the whole matter referred to arbitration under, 
and in accordance with, the forms of the Venezuela arbitration. But 
this was refused by the American authorities unless colonization 
and occupation should, in this case, be taken as implying ownership 
by right — in other words, unless the territory was given up in 
advance, arbitration was not acceptable. And so the matter stands 
at the end of the century. 

UKI'llSIl A.VIi AMKUICAN ]1I ri.O.M ACV 

This rapid summary of the diplomatic relations between Great 
Britain and the United States, in matters affecting- Canada, reveals 
much of vital national import to the Dominion, and indicates 



EXTERNAL RELATIONS OF THE DOMINION 639 

more. It shows clearly the prolonged and serious remissness of the 
Mother-land in matters affecting territory in British America ; it indi- 
cates an ignorance of the value of that territory not, perhaps, 
unnatural in view of the vast and steadily growing responsibilities of 
the United Kingdom and the wild vagaries of the Little England or 
Manchester School of thought, but still reprehensible ; it shows a 
desire to promote peace and amity between the Empire and the 
Republic which has been more creditable to British sentiments of 
kinship than to British statecraft or knowledge of the United States. 
It reveals on the part of Canada, in its callow days, a desire to 
endure all things in preference to questioning seriously the good-will 
and good offices of the Mother-land ; a desire, in later and more 
mature times, to strongly enforce its own views upon the process of 
treaty negotiation and settlement through the right finally given by 
the presence of Sir John Macdonald at Washington in 1870, of Sir 
Charles Tupper at the same place in 1888 and of Sir John Thompson 
at Paris in 1S93 ; a request and granted permission to make its own 
commercial treaties, subject to British approval, and illustrated in the 
visits of Canadian leaders to Washington in 1869, in 1874, in 1892 and 
in 1897. 

It indicates on the part of Great Britain, and in later days, a 
steady, though slow, growth in her appreciation of Canadian loyalty 
and the value of Canadian territory. The difference between the 
terms and character and results of British negotiations in 181S, in 
1842, in 1846 and in 1870 and those of the years since 1SS8 are most 
startling in the measure of change from ignorance and indifference 
to knowledge and devoted support. To compare the willingness of 
Earl de Grey, at Washington, in 1S70, to surrender Canadian terri- 
torial and fishing interests en masse, withLord Salisbury's declaration 
in 1887 that further seizures of Canadian vessels on the Atlantic coast 
would practically mean w^ar, is as striking in its way as to glance at 



640 EXTERNAL RELATIONS OF THE DOMINION 

the difference between Sir Richard Cartwright, in 1887, advocating 
a poHcy of trade preferences against England and in favour of the 
United States and, in 1897, supporting one of preferences in favour of 
England and against the United States. It shows, indirectly, how 
strong must have been the Canadian sentiment of loyalty to the flag 
and allegiance to the Crown which could face and overcome, or grow 
out of, the feelings naturally and inevitably aroused by these earlier 
sacrifices of Colonial interests. It also affords some excuse to those 
who have since supported a policy inconsistent with the maintenance 
of British connection. 

CANADIAN LOVALTV AND DESTINY " 

The reasons are not far to seek. If Great Britain, on the one 
hand, did not value to the full extent the waste lands of the continent 
in which she already held so large a stake, and was unable to see the 
future importance of certain places and boundaries which slipped out 
of her hands, she, on the other hand, maintained her right to very 
great regions of territory. If, at times, statesmen thought or spoke 
slightingly of certain Canadian interests, or territorial rights, they did 
little more than many politicians of the Dominion itself have since 
done. If there were recollections of British neo^lisfence and of 
occasional losses of territory through diplomacy, there were, also, in the 
heart of every British subject in Canada memories of struggles for 
life and home and country in which he had fought side by side with 
British troops from the time when they were painfully spared by an 
exhausted Mother-land in 18 12 and 18 14, through the troubles of 
I S3 7, the frontier raids of the two succeeding years, the Trent Affair, 
when thousands of British troops had been poured into the Provinces 
to defend them against a possible war, the period of the Fenian raids 
and the events of the first Riel rebellion. 

There were other reasons for the maintenance and development 
of loyal sentiment. The influence of an hereditary tendency toward 



EXTERNAL RELATIONS OF THE DOMINION 641 

monarchical institutions amongst French-Canadians, and of an intense 
personal sentiment of allegiance amongst the United Empire Loyal- 
ists of the other Provinces, had a distinct effect upon their descend- 
ants. The personal factor in this connection received a great and 
growing impetus in the accession of Queen Victoria to the Throne, 
in the respect felt for the life and work and memory of the Prince 
Consort, and in the visit of H. R. H. the Prince of Wales to Canada 
in i860. The latter event was one of direct interest and importance. 
The young Prince, accompanied by the Duke of Newcastle, Colonial 
Secretary, and a large suite, visited all the principal places in Canada 
and, at Halifax, St John, Quebec, Montreal, Toronto and other points 
received ovations which fully illustrated the strength of existing loy- 
alty to British institutions. 

Another factor of great weight has been the presence, influence 
and personality of the Governors-General. Lord Durham was the 
recognized founder of practical constitutionalism in Canada. Men 
like Lord Metcalfe and Lord Dalhousie impressed even hostile critics 
and antagonists with their personal honour and high principles. Lord 
Elgin was a model of courtesy in manner and clever conciliation in 
rule. Lord Monck was a strong factor in promoting Confederation 
and went further, even, than the constitution under ordinary circum- 
stances would have warranted, in pressing it to an issue. Sir Howard 
Douglas and Sir John Harvey, in the Maritime Provinces, were 
models of careful, honourable administration. Lord Lisgar and 
others who preceded and succeeded him gave the society and the 
people of a new country most useful and practical examples of the 
best phases of English life and customs and manners. Lord Dufferin 
was a power in eloquence and popularity which went very far towards 
consolidating and promoting British and Canadian sentiment in the 
geographically separated Provinces. 

34 



642 EXTERNAL RELATIONS OF THE DOMINION 

As the years rolled on towards the end of the century other and 
external forces came to the front. The formation of the Imperial 
Federation League in London, and the speeches from year to year of 
men like Lord Rosebery, Mr. \V. E. Forster, Mr. Stanhope, Lord 
Brassey, Sir John Lubbock (Lord Avebury) and others of the new 
school of Imperial statecraft rolled away many a cloud of doubt 
which had shadowed the minds of even loyal Canadians, as to the 
British attitude toward the Colonies. Gradually, too, that wretched 
yoke upon the neck of Empire and unity, the Little Englander 
School disappeared from the area of influence, though not altogether 
from sight and sound. Better men were placed in charge of the Colo- 
nial Office and, finally, Mr. Chamberlain, whose faults may well be 
buried in view of his honest and earnest belief in the Empire as a 
great world-factor, came into a position and a power which he did not 
hesitate to wield. 

Moreover, there had never been, until Confederation, any united 
public opinion in the Provinces which could very strongly feel or resent 
the passing incidents of British neglect or ignorance. The people under- 
stood the value of British America, as a whole, very little more than 
did their fellow-subjects in the British Isles, and no lasting impression 
was made upon their memories by the historic events referred to. 
The United States, on the other hand, was always near them and 
always a rough and ready wooer. Annexation was the dream of its 
greatest leaders but certainty as to the result, much talk of destiny in 
the matter, and overwhelming belief in the superiority of American 
institutions, led them into the error of using coercion instead of con- 
ciliation. Had the wooing been systematic and kindly and had the 
Republic assumed and maintained the role of a magnanimous and 
sympathetic neighbour, the British Canada of to-day would have been 
almost an impossibility. Not absolutely so, of course, but from ever)' 
standpoint of present probability. 



EXTERNAL RELATIONS OF THE DOMINION 643 

Outside of the Reciprocity period, which, however, was marked 
by a prolonged series of nagging efforts at abrogation, the history of 
American relations with the British Provinces has been one the reverse 
of brotherly. Since the War of 18 12 the record has been one of dis- 
putes over territory, differences as to fisheries, irritation over treaty 
negotiations, complications in tariff matters. No doubt Canada, in 
both its Provincial and Dominion days, has been wrong at times 
and has seemed a thorn in the flesh to progressive and enterprising 
American leaders ; but its difficult position as a young, small, separ- 
ated and struggling community seems, even in those cases, to have 
deserved some consideration. To understand, therefore, the loyalty 
of Canadians in the year 1900, their now historic participation in the 
South African war, and their public enrollment under the fiag of an 
Empire which can be militant as well as peaceful, the relations of the 
Provinces to the United States as well as to the United King-dom 
must be borne in mind. 

The sentiment which has finally developed and with which the 
Dominion of Canada enters upon a new century of hoped-for achieve- 
ment and progressive prosperity is simple and yet complicated. It is 
simple in being strongly Canadian in scope and character and local 
application. It is complex in being also Imperialistic to a degree 
which is steadily growing in strength and volume amongst an English- 
speaking population. It is still more complicated by the existence of 
a passive French-Canadian people who are opposed to change, loyal 
to existing ties but absolutely indifferent, if not antagonistic, to any 
marked development towards more defined and closer relations. It is 
peculiar in combining American democratic tendencies and sympathies 
with a British loyalty to the Crown which grows with every year of 
the life and reign of Queen Victoria. It is important, in the fact that 
Canadians hold the pivotal point of territory and power in the British 
Empire, and that upon their continued loyalty depends not only the 



644 EXTERNAL RELATIONS OF THE DOMINION 

unity of the Imperial system but British control of the waterways of 
the Atlantic and the Pacific. 

The 400 years of Canadian history which have gone into the 
making of the Dominion are, therefore, of a nature to stamp its future 
with every fair and reasonable prospect of success. The annals of its 
people reveal combined characteristics in those of French and British 
origin which ought to ensure future power as they have, in the imme- 
diate past, ensured material and national progress. The position of 
the country, in extent and resources and unity and transportation 
facilities, should make the wealth and commerce of an important des- 
tiny as certain as the aspirations of its people are strong. The quali- 
ties of past and historic loyalty to Province and country- and Empire, 
ought to make its place in the Imperial system far more defined in the 
dim march of distant days than has ever yet been possible. Canada 
for Canadians, within the Empire, and against the world, appears to 
be the exact definition of popular feeling and development in the 
Dominion at the end of the nineteenth century. 



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